
Glass i i 


\6S 






Book_, 


' vJ ■' 


G F 



/ 



A VISIT 



jfffZ 



TO 



THE UNITED STATES 



£ 



WHITE AND BLACK 



THE OUTCOME OF A VISIT TO 



THE UNITED STATES 



BY 



SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL, M.P. 





NEW YORK 
R. WORTHINGTON, 750 Broadway 

1879 



£1/68 



NEW YORK : PRINTED BY 

TROW's PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

205-213 EAST I2TH STREET 



By transfer 

itC 30 1915 




PREFACE. 



I have long thought that a man has not seen the 
world till, besides following the beaten tracks in the 
countries of Europe and Western Asia, which have 
all drawn from the same sources, he has seen and 
realised both the great civilisation of the Old World 
which exists in China, owing nothing to our sources, 
and the new departure in Western civilisation which 
has taken place in a New World, in America. While 
I was in India I was able to make a short run round 
to China. The circumstances of a hard-working life 
have not permitted me to fulfil my desire to visit 
America till I accomplished it this last autumn. 
Besides the wish to see America as others have seen 
it, I had also a special desire, for reasons which I 
explain, to learn something of the present position 
of 'the nigger question' — a subject on which very- 
little has been written in this country, and in regard 
to which I had failed to get much clear information 
of a recent date. For that reason I gave special at- 
tention to some of the Southern States, viz., Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. 

During my tour I kept rough notes, but only as 



VI PREFACE. 

an aide-memoire to myself, and not in a state intended 
for publication. After my return I had occasion to 
visit my constituents in the Kirkcaldy Burghs, and I 
varied the monotony of our ordinary political subjects 
by telling them something of what I had seen in 
America. To go through a group of Scotch burghs 
one has to make a good many speeches; and so it 
happened that on several occasions I went over ground 
connected with or suggested by my American expe- 
riences. I also wrote an article on * Black and White 
in the Southern States,' which the Editor of the 
' Fortnightly Review' was kind enough to publish. 
Several of my friends have been so good as to say 
that they have been interested by it, and some of them 
have added, l It is only a pity that you did not carry 
the subject a little farther.' Thus encouraged, I have 
thought that some might be glad to see the evidence 
on which my conclusions were founded, as contained 
in my notes. The fact is, too, that though we have 
plenty of books about the Far West and life in the 
Rocky Mountains, and so on, there seem to be very 
few regarding the more accessible parts of the United 
States. I certainly had great difficulty in finding 
such books to guide me in my travels, and was 
obliged to take my information in a great degree 
from that of Mr. Anthony Trollope, written almost a 
quarter of a century back. A Member of Parliament, 
Mr. Hussey Vivian, who recently visited America, 
and who is a very competent observer, has published 
a book of a very interesting character ; but it so 
happens that his specialties are different from mine. 



PREFACE. Vll 

He tells much about mines and metals, and other 
things, of which I have no knowledge. 

It has occurred to me, then, that there might be 
room for such a book as I now offer, containing much 
of what I have picked up during my tour in the 
United States. I fancy that my notes may perhaps 
be useful, if only as a sort of guide and handbook to 
others contemplating a similar tour ; and that those 
interested in the position of the coloured population, 
and the political and industrial questions arising out 
of it, may find a good deal which has not yet been 
given to the public. 

It will be seen that I made a very rapid run 
through the Northern and some of the Western States, 
and saw something of the interior of Illinois and the 
farmers of that country ; and then, after visiting Penn- 
sylvania, Baltimore, and Washington, made a more 
careful study of the condition of things in the four 
Southern States which I have already mentioned. 

In addition to the Black question I have been 
much interested in the cultivation and handling of 
cotton, which I had also seen in India and Egypt ; 
and in the Southern cotton mills, which now rival 
the North in the production of the coarser goods, just 
as the mills in our cotton-producing possessions rival 
those of Lancashire. There seems to be no doubt that 
both in America and Egypt the yield of cotton to the 
acre is much larger than in India. The bale of which 
I speak is about 450 lbs. 

My tour was so far cut short that I was not able 
to make a little stay in New York and Philadelphia 



VI 11 PKEFACE. 



in the winter season, as I had hoped ; and I have not 
had an opportunity of going into the social and polit- 
ical affairs of New England, which I should have 
much liked. That and a great deal more remains for 
another tour, if I should ever be able to accomplish it. 

I have worked up and supplemented the general 
views which I presented in the Kirkcaldy Burghs, 
and submit the whole as 'A Bird's-eye View of the 
United States.' Then I have been permitted to re- 
publish my article on ' Black and White,' and have 
prefaced it with some remarks on our own manage- 
ment of coloured races in our American and African 
colonies. I have put into some shape those parts 
of my Journal which I thought might bear publica- 
tion. During the return voyage I had made notes of 
the Constitutions of some of the States; and, as a 
specimen of the most improved and modern State 
Constitutions, I have appended the principal parts of 
the Constitutions of some States, especially Illinois. 

I left a blank side in my Journal, on which I have 
sometimes subsequently noted up later experiences 
and corrections, and I have thought it better to 
amalgamate these with the rest, rather than to put 
them separately as notes ; but the effect is to create 
some anachronisms, as it were; so I have not entered 
the precise dates, but have followed generally the 
order of time, place, and subjects. At the same tinie 
a journal must necessarily contain something of an 
olla podrida of various and sometimes incongruous 
subjects a good deal mixed together. If it be re- 
marked that on some subjects several repetitions are 



PREFACE. IX 

to be found, I reply that this is the evidence on which 
my conclusions are founded, and that proof of this 
kind necessarily depends on the cumulative testimony 
of various witnesses. 

Things march rapidly, and while I write the Black 
question seems to have assumed a new phase, creat- 
ing great interest in it, owing to the movement of 
large numbers of that race from Mississippi and Lou- 
isiana, seeking to escape from tyranny and ill-usage, 
and to find new homes in Kansas — a State where I 
have mentioned that the negroes seem to be well 
treated, and in the back parts of which a good many 
of them are, I have heard, successfully established as 
independent small farmers. There was an outbreak 
of yellow fever, and I did not visit Mississippi and 
Louisiana; but I have several times mentioned the 
former State, as that in which the practice of ' bull- 
dozing,' or bullying the negroes, has most prevailed. 
There were also severe election contests in parts of 
Louisiana, accompanied by much violence ; and some 
cases of very unjustifiable lynchings of Negroes were 
reported during my visit. To these things, no doubt, 
the movement is due. I have also mentioned the case 
of a county in Georgia, in which the negroes, being 
dissatisfied with their treatment, formed a league 
among themselves to abandon that county and leave 
their persecutors without labour. That, I take it, is 
exactly what has been done on a larger scale in the 
States of the Lower Mississippi. It is a form of 
strike as a counter-move against ill-treatment; and 
under the circumstances the move may be a bold 



PEEFACE. 



and effective measure. There is nothing so likely to 
bring the landowners to a sense of what they owe 
the negro population as to make them feel the want 
of it. The only fear is, that these poor people are 
rushing into an independence for which they have 
not the means ; but I gather from the latest accounts 
that the movement is rather striking in its sudden 
and concentrated form, than one which involves a 
very great population. The numbers are said to 
have been somewhat exaggerated. I think it will 
probably be found that it is only the population of 
particular counties or districts, where there has been 
special ill-usage, who have emigrated in mass. If 
the efforts now being made to obtain assistance for 
them in the North should be successful, and they 
should be enabled to locate themselves in a temperate 
region in Southern Kansas, the effect may be bene- 
ficial on the whole. At the same time I have expressed 
a strong belief that, in the Southern States, whites 
and blacks are interdependent — neither can do with- 
out the other. I think they themselves have found 
this to be so ; and generally speaking industrial ques- 
tions are not the cause of serious dissension. 

It is the struggle for political power, and the 
question whether the coloured people are to be al- 
lowed to vote freely, which has caused all the trouble. 
The greater the trouble the more necessity for settling 
the question whether real effect is to be given to the 
15th Article of Amendment to the United States Con- 
stitution, providing that the right to vote shall not be 
denied or abridged on account or race or colour. It 



PEEFACE. XI 

is notorious that in the late elections the free exercise 
of that vote has been abridged and destroyed by 
violence and fraud in several Congressional districts. 
These disputed elections must be decided by the 
present Congress. I cannot but think that it would 
be good policy on the part of Northern Democrats 
honestly to give up the few seats which have been 
won by the South by means which cannot possibly be 
defended ; and that it is nothing but the most evident 
prudence on the part of Southern Democrats to accept 
that solution and be content with the great majority 
and complete control of their States, which they have 
attained, without insisting on an absolutely solid 
South, to which they have no just right, if election 
be free. 

A solution of this kind would involve an even 
balancing of parties, which would plainly point to 
compromise; and if there is to be compromise surely 
the best plan would be to let the President of com- 
promise, Mr. Hayes, sit quietly for another term. Mr. 
Hayes pleases neither party, and it is the fashion to 
run him down and call him weak. Yet he is the 
only man who has shown some independent will to 
act for the benefit of his country outside the tram- 
mels of party. I cannot but think that the Civil 
Service and other reforms that he has attempted to 
initiate are well worthy of a trial. No doubt if the 
1 man on horseback ' must come back — if the South 
must be kept down by a firm hand, Grant is the man 
to do it. Whatever his other qualities, he knows the 
policy he is to carry out, and can be depended on to 



Xll PEEFACE. 

j 

do it firmly without flinching. But if things, are to 
be settled by conciliation, and North and South are 
to come together on friendly terms for a new depar- 
ture, then I venture to think that Mr. Hayes is an 
able and good man, whose personal character, manner, 
and surroundings well fit him to carry out such a 
policy. But to make such a policy possible it is ab- 
solutely necessary that the South should honestly 
accept the 15th Amendment. 

George Campbell. 

May 10, 1879. 



*2£s± 




CONTENTS. 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Inducements to Visit America . 
General Features of the Country . 

The Climate 

The Races Composing the Population 
The Principal Products of the Soil 
Characteristics of the American People 

Language ..... 

Hotels and Food 

Railway Travelling 

Social Arrangements 

Manners .... 

The Cities 

The Country Districts 

The Free School System 

Commercial Morality . 
Protection and Reciprocity . 
The Drink Question . 
Religion .... 

The Political System 

Home Rule in the States 
The Position of Canada 
Taxation in the States . 
The Land System 
The Currency Question 
Opportunities for Emigration and Investment 
Feeling towards England .... 



3 
5 

10 
12 

18 
21 
22 
23 
26 
27 
29 
32 
34 
35 
37 
38 
45 
51 
57 
71 
77 
79 
84 
89 
97 
109. 



XIV 



CONTENTS. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

The System prevailing in our Colonies 

Treatment of Natives in Africa 



120 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 

Objects of my Inquiry 126 

The Character and Capacity of the Negro . . . 128 

The Negroes as a Labouring Population .... 140 

The Political Situation in the South . . . . 162 

The Caste Question *........ 194 



SOME OF THE CONTENTS OF MY JOURNAL. 

The Voyage and First Impressions .... 

New York 

The Elevated Railway 

The New York Country 
A Scamper North and West 

Boston . . . 

The Massachusetts Country 

The Mohawk Valley 

Niagara .... 

Canada .... 

Chicago . . . 

Chicago to St. Louis 

St. Louis .... 

Kansas .... 

The Blacks in the West 

The Missouri and Mississippi 

The Interior of Illinois 

The Western Farmers 

Indiana and Ohio 



Pennsylvania 

Pittsburgh . 

Interior of Pennsylvania 



203 
204 
207 
209 
211 
212 
213 
213 
215 
215 
219 
221 
222 
223 
225 
228 
230 
232 
235 



236 
237 

239 



CONTENTS 



A Democratic Meeting 
Pennsylvania!! Farming . 
Philadelphia 

A Republican Meeting . 
Pennsylvanian Industries . 
Philadelphian Society 
The Courts and the Judges 
Some Pennsylvanian Ideas 



Baltimore 

The Blacks in Maryland, &c. . 
The Hopkins University 
The Baltimore People 
A Democratic view of Politics 



XV 



Washington 

Conversation with the President 

Appearance of the City . 

Some Opinions on several Subjects 

Some of the Public Offices 

The Revenue System . 

The Weather Department 

General Sherman 

Law and Lawyers . 



Virginia .... 
The Blacks at Hampton . 
Norfolk . . . 
Petersburg 
Free Trade Views 
Richmond 
Education . 

The Tobacco Manufacture 
A Visit to the Country 
The Governor of Virginia 
Virginian Views of Things 



XVI 



CONTENTS. 



North Carolina . . . • 
Raleigh, Capital of the State 
Gaelic-speaking Americans 
The Cotton Culture . 
Condition of the Negroes 
Political Parties . 
Agricultural Geography . 
Education . . . . 
The Farmers .... 
Some Carolinian Acquaintances 
The Constitution and Legislation 
Durhams and Tobacco Manufacture 
A Southern Cotton Mill . 
Salisbury and the People there 



South Carolina 

To Columbia, the Capital . 

Wade Hampton, the Governor 

The Election 

Education 

Position of the Negroes 

The Tenure of Land 

Charleston .... 

The Low-country Negroes 

The Rice Country 

The Sea Islands 

Some Representative Men . 

Visits to the Country 

How the Election was Won 

The Exodus to Liberia . 

South Carolina Legislation 

A Visit to the Rice Districts 

The Phosphate Works 

The County of Beaufort . 

The Effect of Black Rule . 

An American ' Ryotwar ' Settlement 



CONTENTS. 



Georgia ...... 

Augusta and the Cotton Mills 

Journey to Atlanta 

A Southern View of Things . 

Atlanta, the Capital . 

The Georgian Legislature 

Some Georgian Acquaintances . 

The Liquor Traffic . 

Views about the Nigger 

Some Statistics 

More Talk with Georgians . 

A Democratic Orator 

The Election of Judges 

Manufactures and Trade 

The Georgian Farmers 

The Independents . 

To Calhoun — a Farm in the Country 

The White Farmers 

Dalton — more White Farmers and Black 

The Return Journey 
A Cattle Country 
Washington again . 
To New York .... 
Railway Affairs 

Some Views of North and South 
A New York Market 
New York Politics and Taxation 
The Voyage Home . 



XVll 

PAGE 

346 
347 
348 
350 
352 
352 
354 
358 
358 
361 
364 
367 
368 
369 
370 
370 
371 
372 
374^ 

377 
378 
#79 
380 
380 
381 
382 
383 
385 



x ^ 



STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 



The Constitution of Massachusetts 
The Constitution of Virginia . 
The Constitution of Illinois 



386 
387 
3'92 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE UNITED STATES 

BEING- THE SUBSTANCE OP 

A SERIES OF ADDRESSES DELIVERED IN SCOTLAND IN 
THE BEGINNING OF FEBRUARY 1879 




A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 

OP 

THE UNITED STATES: 

THE SUBSTANCE OF A SERIES OF ADDRESSES. 



1 have a strong belief that all of us ought to know 
the Americans better than we do. They are really 
and truly our kin. This is not a mere phrase. When 
one goes among them one finds that they are very 
little removed from us after all, and the community 
of language makes intimacy very easy. An inti- 
mate acquaintance and friendship with them must be 
most beneficial to both parties, in order to cultivate 
the arts of peace and material progress, and to avert 
the possibility of misunderstandings which have led, 
and might even yet lead to war between two sister 
countries, than which, in these modern days of 
destruction, nothing can be more awful or more 
terrible ; but a risk to which we are always exposed 
as long as misunderstandings are possible. It seems 
to me very unfortunate that most of the popular 
English writers who have described the Americans 
have caricatured them : and that is so not only as 
regards the writers of the past who have suffered 



4 EIPwD's-ETE view of the united states. 

from American finance or otherwise, but even the 
popular writer Anthony Trollope, who is still among 
us, and who some years ago gave us a description of 
the Americans in his very vivid and popular manner, 
seems to me to have done them the greatest injustice. 
He seems to make the worst of everything ; most of 
their ways and institutions he condemns to, I think, 
an unfair degree ; and you may imagine the spirit in 
which he wrote, when I mention that writing in the 
latter part of the great civil war he condemns, in 
language the most scathing, all who would do any- 
thing so mad and foolish as to emancipate the slaves. 
The only wonder to me is that after all that has 
passed the feeling of the Americans towards us is so 
good as it in fact is. They really have a very kindly 
feeling on their part ; and if there is misunderstanding 
I think it is more clue to ignorance and prejudice on 
the part of many people in England, though I hope 
not in Kirkcaldy, which has so much and so benefi- 
cial business with America. It is certainly the case 
that the Americans who come to Europe do not feel 
themselves at their ease in England, and consequently 
it happens — a very lamentable fact, I think— that, 
almost invariably, after spending a few days in the 
country and seeing Windsor, Stratford-on-Avon, and 
Abbotsforcl, they go abroad to the Continent of 
Europe and spend their time and money there. I 
think this should be cured. We should welcome 
them more than we do ; and I would very much urge 
on all of you who can make it out to go and, see 
for yourselves in America what kind of people they 



GEXEKAL FEATUEE3 OF THE COUXTEY. . 5 

are. You would very soon find that you are not 
among foreigners there, but among a people with whom 
you could very readily make yourselves at home. 

The facilities for getting to America are now very 
great, and the expense not large. The Atlantic no 
doubt is not the calmest of seas, but stout-hearted 
people don't mind that. The voyage is now reduced 
to eight days, and the steamers are admirable and 
very numerous. For those who are prepared to 
travel in an independent way, without servants or 
special luxuries, the cost of travelling in America is 
not excessive, and the comforts are considerable. 
Whatever may be said of the hotels in other re- 
spects, they are very convenient for the passing trav- 
eller, and the kindness of American friends to whom 
one is introduced is unbounded. 

For people who require private rooms and ac- 
commodation for. servants, and who cannot rough it 
so far as to get about by the aid of tramways and 
public conveyances only, travelling in America is 
much more difficult and expensive, since the American 
establishments do not afford the same private accom- 
modation as English hotels, or if they do, charge for 
it excessively, and the hack carriages are enormously 
dear. This must be borne in mind if ladies are of 
the party. 

GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. 

I will try to give you some little account of the 
country and the people ; and first as regards the 



6 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

objects iixmiecliately apparent to the eye- — the com- 
mon botany and zoology of the country, I was sur- 
prised to find not nearly so strange as I expected. 
One has heard so much of the extremely new 
character of the trees and animals of Australasia, 
and other distant countries — of trees without leaves, 
and animals that walk chiefly by the aid of their 
tails — that I had expected in America also, so long 
an undiscovered continent, to find numerous strange 
appearances. It really is not so at all. The vegeta- 
tion is curiously like our own. Firs and oaks, and 
other trees, look very much like those in Europe, 
and the animals too are not violently unlike. There 
are partridges and birds like grouse, and American 
rabbits not so unlike ours, and other creatures very 
familiar to us. But there is this peculiarity, that, 
although almost all plants and animals are like those 
with us they are never identical. .They are always 
similar, but never the same species ; and perhaps it 
is due to the peculiarities of climate that European 
species seem never to have superseded those of 
America. For instance, while the European rabbit 
has overrun Australia and New Zealand, it is un- 
known in America, and the small American rabbit — 
something between the rabbit and the hare in its 
habits — still holds its place. I am told that in re- 
ality there is a greater difference between the natural 
productions of the country east and west of the 
Rocky Mountains than there is between Europe and 
the Eastern States. I did not myself go so far as the 
Rocky Mountains ; but till we reach the western 



GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. 7 

part of the American continent, I may say of the 
States in general, that they are not so mountainous 
or so hilly as Great Britain. The most decided hills 
that one sees are close to the eastern ports, but 
beyond that there is scarcely anything that can be 
called a mountain. What is called a mountain in 
American language is sometimes a very little hill 
indeed. On the other hand, one is struck by the 
immense quantity of wood all over the country, not 
less in the Southern States than in the North. In 
fact, the Southern States are especially woody, and 
it is the quantity of wood that in all the old States 
makes the extension of cultivation somewhat slow 
and difficult. The prevailing tree in the south is a 
pine, which very much resembles our Scotch fir ; in 
the north, hardwood trees are more prevalent. In 
truth, not a tenth part of the older States is yet 
really cleared and cultivated. There is yet every- 
where room for immense development. The rainfall 
is generally most beneficently arranged, and the gen- 
eral character of the land is one of much fertility. 
In this respect, however, I do not think that it has 
upon the whole, or taken on an average, an advan- 
tage over England and the lowlands of Scotland. 
True, some western lands are of extraordinary 
fertility, but there is a great deal that is only 
moderately fertile, and that is the case in regard to 
most of the Eastern States. When we compare the 
country on the whole with England, I think it may 
be said that perhaps it is about on a par — the 
average of the soil is as good, perhaps a little better. 



8 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

In some respects the climate is brighter, but the 
winters are certainly more severe, and the extremes 
of climate lead to an enormous growth of weeds, 
which makes agriculture in some respects more 
difficult than with us. True, in the west there are 
what are called prairie States, great parts of which 
are free from natural wood ; but it is an entire 
delusion to suppose that magnificent prairies with 
magnificent natural grass are easily available to the 
settler. I travelled considerably west of the Missouri 
in search of such a prairie, and never found one. 
The ground is all taken up and enclosed, and the 
natural prairie grass — never very good — fails as soon 
as cattle are turned upon it in large numbers. Hence 
in Illinois and such States the farmers are obliged to 
resort to artificial grass, just as we do in this part of 
Scotland. 

On the whole, then, taking the country mile for 
mile and acre for acre, I can say that it is about 
equal to but not superior to England ; but then there 
is this vast difference, that it is not one England, but 
forty Englands. Some people seem to have been 
offended by Mr. Gladstone's recent article, when he 
said that the United States, if they kept together, 
must certainly surpass us. It seems to me that Mr. 
Gladstone only spoke a truth which must be self- 
evident, without attributing to the American people 
any great superiority over ourselves, at all events 
over Scotchmen. We are a people a little over 
30,000,000, who have no means of extension in our 
own country. We are, as it were, like a hive of bees 



GENERAL FEATURES OE THE COUNTRY. y 

which is constantly sending forth swarms to establish 
other hives elsewhere, bnt does not itself admit of 
extension; whereas the Americans are already up- 
wards of 40,000,000, perhaps nearly 45,000,000 of 
people who are continually extending themselves 
every day ; they have not one hive but forty hives, 
and these only very partially occupied ; and not only 
do they send their swarms into their own hives, but 
they are continually receiving new swarms from us and 
from others. It follows, as a matter of course, that 
under such circumstances the forty hives must surpass 
the one hive in population and production, if only 
they keep together. And we may be very comfort- 
able at home without grudging them their extension. 
In truth, what the Americans suffer from at 
present is too much land. They would have better 
settled what they have if they had less of it. At one 
time it was supposed that, soon after passing the 
Missouri they had reached the natural limit in that 
direction, and that the country was then bounded by 
a great rainless tract, marked in the map as the great 
American desert; but it has been discovered that 
this is quite a mistake, that the country called desert 
is not desert at all, but very capable of excellent 
cultivation, and especially good for raising wheat 
and cattle. The most rapidly developing States in 
the west are those situated in that tract marked as 
desert in the map. In fact, that is the great feature 
of recent American extension, and from these there 
comes a large portion of the wheat and the beef 
which to-day renders your food so much cheaper 



10 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

than it has been. Wheat is a plant which thrives in 
a dry climate, and great tracts in the far west are 
now found to be suitable to it, while even where the 
land is too dry or steep for wheat, good grazing is 
still found on the slopes and in the valleys of the 
Rocky Mountains. 



TEE CLIMATE. 

The Americans are accustomed rather to boast of 
their climate, and to compare the brightness of their 
skies with our foggy atmosphere ; but on the other 
hand there is no doubt of this, that they suffer from 
extremes of heat and cold more than we do. The 
heat in summer is excessive in New York. For a 
few weeks in the height of summer I am told that 
it is not an uncommon thing for the thermometer 
to stand at 110°, and to be almost as high at night 
as in the daytime. And then the cold in winter is 
very severe, and though kept out of houses by stoves 
— not the most wholesome things in the world — 
much interferes with agricultural and other opera- 
tions. It is generally believed that the effect of this 
climate has been to make the American race perhaps 
keener and brighter, but not so healthy and rosy as 
our people are. The difference in the women espe- 
cially has long been noticed. Still I am bound to 
say I saw a great many men in America who looked 
very robust and well, and might have passed for 
Scotchmen; and that even some of the ladies are 
now becoming pretty beefy, as it has been irreverently 



THE CLIMATE. 11 

expressed. I say this without detracting from the 
reputation for a somewhat delicate-looking beauty 
which is well deserved by so many of them. The 
great advantage for practical purposes of the American 
climate is the favourable distribution of the rainfall. 
The rain seems never to fail, and it generally comes 
just when it is most wanted. I believe it is almost 
entirely due to the fortunate distribution of the 
rainfall that the Southern States so completely beat 
countries where labour is infinitely cheaper in the 
production of cotton. The valley of the Mississippi 
has throughout a very full and good supply of rain 
at the right season, and throughout the Union there 
seems to be less trouble from bad weather at harvest 
time than with us. Many crops, maize especially, 
stand out for long till it is convenient to reap them. 
In California I believe the wheat is left standing for 
weeks without injury. I should tell you here that 
in what I say of America, I usually do not refer to 
the Californian countries beyond the mountains. I 
did not go there ; but I found that if I remarked 
anything that was wanting in America they always 
said, 'Ah, you would get that in California.' I have 
no doubt from what I learned that California really 
has a different climate — not so hot in summer, nor 
so cold in winter, but more like that of Southern 
Europe, as shown by its fruits and other productions. 
I think one of the most extraordinary things I know, 
as showing the difference between the energies of 
different races, is that the Spaniards were actually 
possessed of California for hundreds of years, and 



12 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

never discovered tliat it was worth anything at all, 
whereas the Americans no sooner got it than they 
made it one of the finest countries in the world. At 
the same time I should say this by way of caution, 
that under the old Spanish grants of land all California 
has been monopolised, and it is not owned by settlers, 
as the other parts of the States. The man who goes 
there must expect to be a labourer rather than an 
owner of land. 



THE RAGES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. 

And now I will tell you something about the 
origin and breed, if I may use the expression, of the 
people of America. The foundation of the people — 
that upon which their language and manners are 
based — is almost entirely English, derived in fact 
from the southern counties of England, from which 
the early settlers came. Indeed, I am inclined to 
think that many of the peculiarities in language and 
other respects, which we now call American, are really 
old English, or rather old south of England pecu- 
liarities. We Scotch have not put a special Scotch 
impress on any part of the United States, as we have 
in Ireland and other parts of the world. In Canada 
only does one hear very largely the Scottish tongue 
and find especially Scottish settlements. But although 
none of the United States are specially Scotch there 
is a very large and very valuable infusion of Scotch 
blood throughout all of them. I found that an 
immense number of the best and most prominent men 



RACES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. 13 

wherever I went claimed Scotch descent, or at least 
a share of Scottish blood. Then there is another 
allied breed which is very prominent in almost every 
part of the United States — one of the finest races of 
the world — of which we have reason to be proud and 
may well think second only to ourselves. I mean 
the Northern Irish, universally called in America 
Scotch-Irish, expressing by that term people of 
Scotch origin who had settled in Ireland. They have 
emigrated to America in large numbers, and are 
among the best farmers and the best men in every 
way. There is, as you know, a very large Southern- 
Irish element in the States, mostly comparatively 
recent emigrants, of the Catholic religion. A very 
great deal has been said against these Irish in the 
States. I confess I had rather been led to believe 
that they were a rowdy and not very prosperous set. 
I have been agreeably surprised by what I learned 
of them in America. It is true the} r have not very 
much risen to the higher places, in fact seem com- 
paratively seldom to rise as compared with Scotch or 
Scotch-Irish, except as politicians ; but they are admir- 
able labourers, and it is almost a proverb in the States 
to say that a good workman does as much as an 
Irishman. The railways and other great works of 
the States are almost dependent upon Irish labour. 
And in the cotton mills of the Northern States, which 
now so severely rival Lancashire, I am told that the 
Irish girls work better and are generally preferred to 
Americans and Canadians who work with them in 
the mills. Although the Irish have not shown that 



14 bird's-eye view oe the united states. 

aptitude as pioneers in the settlement of land which 
we might have expected of men so accustomed to 
small farms in Ireland, and do not successfully push 
west as do Scotchmen or Germans, and although like 
other Americans they may not always be very saving, 
I understand that they are not altogether without 
these good qualities, and that a very large portion of the 
North-Eastern States, from which the pushing and ad- 
venturous Yankees have gone forth to occupy the West, 
have been filled up as they leave by Irishmen taking 
their places. It would be a very curious thing if 
Puritan New England became a Roman Catholic Irish 
colony, while New England goes West to better itself. 
Although the language and everything else in the 
States is English, there is, as you are probably aware, 
a very large proportion of European foreigners, who 
have become naturalised and are becoming Anglicised 
there. The old Dutch of New York are not very 
numerous. But one is apt to be misled regarding 
the Dutch, for it is the American habit to call all 
Germans Dutch, probably the German word deutsch 
having become naturalised. The Germans are a 
numerous and most valuable element in the United 
States. Perhaps, taking them all in all, they are as 
good colonists as any of the races which come from 
these islands. For if they are not so bright and so 
pushing they are more hard-working, and saving, and 
more economical; in fact, they are quite model 
colonists. They settle down on the land and work 
with a thriftiness and perseverance which no Scotch.- 
men could beat — the women working as well as the 



RACES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. 15 

men; and whether in the east or in the west you 
always find Germans among the best and most numer- 
ous of the small farmers. That is their special voca- 
tion. They are also very numerous among small 
shopkeepers and traders. German Jews are now be- 
coming very prominent in the States. Of late years 
there has been a great emigration of people from 
the Scandinavian countries : Swedes and Norwegians, 
and people from Finland and some parts of Russia. 
They confine themselves to the extreme Northern 
States, pushing on to the far north-west; but they 
are admirable settlers, and a great source of increase 
and improvement to the States to which they go. In 
several parts of the United States there is a consider- 
able old French element which contributes in many 
respects to the brightness of the population and to 
certain branches of enterprise and industry. 

The native Indians have never come to any good ; 
I am afraid they have never been very well managed 
in the States, not so well as in Canada; at all events 
they are gradually pushed off the soil ; only a few 
still remain as pensioners, and they cannot be ac- 
counted as a considerable element in the population. 
On the other hand, the negro race, imported as slaves, 
is now very numerous and very prominent, forming 
about half the population of many of the Southern 
States. We have heard a great many prophecies of 
the terrible things which would happen when these 
poor helpless children were set free. Mr. Anthony 
Trollope, whom I have mentioned, is one of the most 
lugubrious of the prophets. They were to die out 



16 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

or be sent back to Africa, or to be a perpetual incu- 
bus to the white people among whom they lived. I 
have been agreeably surprised to find how all this 
has been falsified. Far from dying out they are now 
prospering and increasing. They produce that im- 
mense crop of cotton, larger far than any produced 
in slave times, which supplies the mills of the whole 
world. They are capital workers at railways and 
other works in the southern climates not fitted for 
white men. They do almost as much work as Irish- 
men. I was told that many of them are becoming 
small independent farmers; and altogether instead 
of being a burden they are becoming an important 
class of American citizens. They are already zealous 
Christians. They have adopted the ways and habits 
of the white men. They have the rights of citizens, 
and are rapidly being educated. 

I have alluded to the New Englanders of the 
North-Eastern States, and said that very many of 
them have pushed further west. It is in consequence 
of this emigration that the great North- Western 
States are very distinctly marked by a New England 
or Yankee character. Undoubtedly the least fertile 
portion of the United States is New England. The 
only wonder is how the first settlers should ever 
have settled there ; but having taken root there they 
were rewarded for their industry by the acquisition 
of the great countries to the north-west. The State 
of New York is a great State ; but its agricultural 
citizens have abundant room within their own State ; 
and it is rather the City of New York than the State 



RACES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. - 17 

i 

that is so prominent in American politics and com- 
merce. That city is, in fact, situated in a position 
•extraordinarily favourable to commerce, and has far 
outdone all rivals. It has a magnificent harbour, 
with a tide just enough to keep it clean and sweet, 
and not so much as to render necessary dry docks 
and other elaborate appliances which we require. 
Ships of the largest burden lie alongside the shore 
for miles, and have facilities such as are not found 
in our harbours. Then in the latitude of New York 
there is a natural cleft in the Alleghany Mountains — 
the only cleft which exists from the Gulf of Mexico 
to Northern Canada. Through that cleft there is a 
splendid waterway, the Hudson River, and railways 
have been carried alongside of it. Thus it is that 
KeAv York has a natural advantage which no other 
port possesses. In the country districts of the Xew 
York State, as in the city, there are still considerable 
remains of the old Dutch element, but nearly Angli- 
cised ; the other settlers on the land of all classes, 
both British and foreign, constitute a very large and 
prosperous population of small farmers. Pennsylva- 
nia, again, is a very great State, originally founded 
by English Quakers, but in which the German ele- 
ment is now very large. It is, perhaps, the most 
advanced State in the Union, in regard to its manu- 
factures and the character of its agriculture. Penn- 
sylvania, too, has very largely colonised the Western 
States. Virginia is an old State, but not so prosper- 
ous. I am afraid most of the Eno-lishmen who have 

taken up land there have not made a particularly 

2 



18 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

good thing of it, except those in the hilly country to 
the west, where splendid cattle are produced. But 
Virginia is, as it were, the mother of the Southern 
States. From Virginia people have very largely 
gone southwards to colonise the higher and cooler 
parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, and the other 
Southern States ; so that in these States, while, as I 
have said, about half the population are negroes, the 
other half are very decent and respectable white 
people, principally small farmers. There has not 
been much white immigration there of late years, but 
in the last century a good many Scotchmen went 
there, especially Highlanders. 



THE PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL. 

If you look at the map you will see the great 
varieties of latitude and of physical configuration 
which enable the United States to produce so many 
things, and so largely to supply the world with food 
and the materials for clothing. Round the Southern 
seaboard, from North Carolina to Texas, and up the 
Mississippi to Arkansas and Missouri, we have a belt 
of States producing by far the largest portion of the 
cotton-supply of Europe. On the lowlands of the 
Carolinas and Georgia rice of fine quality is grown ; 
and near the mouths of the Mississippi there are 
great sugar plantations ; but these latter articles only 
thrive under protection, and are not exported. There 
has lately been a good deal of talk and fuss about the 
production of sugar from maize-stalks and sorghum, 



THE PEIKCIPAL PKODtrCTS OF THE SOIL. 19 

a Chinese millet. Many farmers cultivate patches 
of the latter; but so far as I could learn, this sugar is 
not likely to come to much — only a sort of molasses 
for domestic use is ordinarily obtained. 

The American tobacco is principally grown in the 
Central States; still to a large extent in Virginia, but 
even more in Kentucky and Tennessee, and farther 
west, and now a good deal in Pennsylvania also. 

There is some very fine grazing ground in the 
Central States, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West 
Virginia. The blue grass of Kentucky is famous; 
though it is not blue at all, but green, and very like 
our common natural grass. In the South an East- 
Indian grass, known as l DlwojpJ or Sun-grass, has 
been introduced, and proves very productive as a 
permanent grass. In most of the Northern States 
timothy grass, rye grass, and clover are largely sown ; 
and in some parts further south lucerne is a produc- 
tive crop. 

Efforts are being made to reintroduce silk in the 
South, but it has been tried before, and I doubt if it 
will come to much. The tea-plant grows very well, 
but it requires too much labour to be a practical 
culture in the States. There is too much frost for 
coffee. The Southerners are trying to grow Bengal 
jute, but nothing has come of these experiments yet. 
They used to cultivate indigo, but it has quite gone 
out ; Bengal has beaten them in that. And they have 
not attempted to rival our Indian opium. Attempts 
are made to produce wine, but I think it is only in 
California that vineyards are very successful. 



20 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

In the Northern States, little as one would 
expect it, the most valuable product of all is hay, 
chiefly grown from artificial grass. That shows 
how much is done for the rearing of flocks. Maize, 
or Indian corn, is an immense production all over 
the country. Of this also much is used to feed 
animals. After that comes wheat, the production of 
which has made wheat cheap in. our markets, and the 
cultivation of which is so much increasing that it 
may be confidently predicted that, unless we have 
any unhappy quarrel with the United States, which 
God forbid, bread never can again be dear in this 
country ; for the means of communication are im- 
proving every day. The production of barley is not 
large, but there is a great abundance of oats. Wheat 
is produced both in the North- Western States, where 
snow covers it in winter, and much further south, 
where the winters are mild. In the intermediate 
zone maize prevails. 

I trust cheap meat is about to be secured to us in 
addition to cheap bread. Already bacon is produced 
in America at an extraordinarily low rate, and the 
people of a large number of the States are now de- 
voting immense attention to the production of beef. 
It is not only that great herds come from the western 
grazing grounds of Colorado and Texas, but in the 
settled agricultural countries people- are more and 
more giving themselves to cattle-breeding. They im- 
port very carefully the finest bulls, and are raising 
the character of their cattle every day. Nothing 
impressed me so much throughout my tour as the 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN" PEOPLE. 21 

great extent of country, North and South, East and 
West, in which the farmers are going into cattle- 
breeding for our market with enthusiasm — one hears 
the talk of beeves everywhere, and the cattle trade 
is ready to assume enormous jjroportions. You are 
aware, too, that extraordinary efforts are being made, 
day by day, to find improved means of bringing the 
American meat to your doors. An immense number 
of fine steamers are fitting up for the trade in live 
cattle, which is growing by leaps and bounds as 
never trade grew before. I cannot but have some 
sympathy with our farmers, who are, 1 am afraid, 
having rather hard times; but still they have con- 
siderable advantages in many respects, and must 
more and more devote themselves to supplying us 
with milk and butter, to finishing off the education of 
foreign cattle, to turning their farms into a sort of 
market-gardens of high culture. And, without touch- 
ing upon political subjects, I must venture to hope 
that our Government will not be led into any re- 
striction upon the importation of cattle, which would 
have the effect of keeping very dear the butcher's-meat 
consumed by the people of this country. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 

I now proceed to tell you something of the 
characteristics of the American people — I mean the 
real American, born and bred in the country, as 
distinguished from the foreign element, of which 
there is so much. In some things, no doubt, there 



22 bied's-eye view of the united states. 

are peculiarities which make them unlike us; but 
in very many other things they ar.e like us. And it 
seems to me that, after getting over the first surface 
differences, the likenesses are much more numerous 
and much more prominent than the unlikenesses. 
"We have heard of their popular " Yankeeisms," which 
are supposed to give us a fair specimen of the 
American people ; but what I found when I went 
there was, that the peculiarities of language and other- 
wise which had been held out to us as " Yankeeisms " 
really almost exhaust all that there is of American 
peculiarity. These * Yankeeisms ' of our literature are 
not specimens of what is behind, but are in themselves 
nearly the whole of the features in which the people 
differ from us. In their general* style, in their man- 
ners, and in their language they are in a very marked 
degree British, and not foreign. 

In regard to language especially I was really 
surprised to find how little difference there is, and 
how much their idioms and everything else are 
thoroughly English. It is a curious thing, but it 
seems to me that the only people who talk very 
American indeed are the higher class of people, and 
especially the ladies — the sort of fine ladies one sees 
in foreign hotels on the Continent of Europe. 
Perhaps the truth is that these people are the oldest 
Americans, who have brought down most completely 
the provincial peculiarities which they carried with 
them from certain parts of Old England or established 
among themselves in the early days of American 
settlement. It may well be that these have been 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 23 

handed down anions the richer classes, whereas 
among the lower classes, intermixed so much as 
they have been with new arrivals, the language has 
assumed a sort of cosmopolitan English character. 
I found that in many parts of the States the common 
labouring man used language which I could not dis- 
tinguish from that of a tolerably educated man of the 
same class in these islands. I might have been in 
doubt what county he came from, but if he did not 
happen to use a few peculiar American phrases I 
should not have known that he was not a Britisher. 
It was not only that my ear became accustomed to 
the American intonation, for I constantly found, 
again, that when I met ladies of the more well-to-do 
classes the ' Yankee' peculiarities came out as pro- 
minently as ever. Of the body of the people I think 
it may be said that their language is English — a 
little better than that used in an}^ county of Eng- 
land. 

The hotels are certainly a very peculiar American 
institution. Mr. Anthony Trollope hits them of± 
very well. Although he does make the worst of 
things, I am not prepared to say that there is not 
much truth in his description of the hotels. I have 
said that they are extremely convenient for the 
passing traveller ; but as residences in the way many 
Americans use them I do not know that I should 
care for them. It struck me as curious, in regard 
to hotels and some other things, that, inventive and 
progressive as the Americans are, there is in these 
things a sort of dead level of uniformity about them. 



24 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

"Wherever you go in all these vast States the hotels 
are almost all on. the same plan. So are the railway 
carriages, and so are some other things. There does 
not exist either the cosy, comfortable English hotel 
or the foreign cafe. There is nothing in New York 
or anywhere else, so far as I saw, like the Boulevards 
in Continental cities. But there is everywhere the 
universal American hotel, the lower hall of which is 
a kind of place of assembly for all the world, or at all 
events all the male world. That public life in the 
hotel hall is what the American men seem to like 
best. The reading-rooms and other public apartments 
are not very comfortable ; but the barber's shop 
attached to every American hotel is luxurious. I do 
agree with Mr. Trollope in denouncing as the most 
horrible place in the world the ladies' room, which is 
always the stiffest, barest, and most uncomfortably 
gorgeous place that it is possible to conceive — not a 
book or a newspaper or a domestic comfort of any 
kind — a place into which a stranger can hardly dare 
to enter, unless he be a man of iron nerves ; and if he 
does enter cannot make himself comfortable in any 
sort of way. It seems very strange that, with the ex- 
perience of Continental travelling which the Americans 
have, after seeing the nice, comfortable drawing-rooms 
in Swiss and other hotels, they won't condescend to 
introduce something of the kind into their own. 
Then in their mode of feeding the Americans are 
certainly peculiar, and their ways are quite different 
from our ways. You never see such a thing as an 
English joint or an English dish put upon the table. 



CHAEACTEELSTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 2o 

Kor, on the other hand, have you well-cooked dishes 
Landed round in the French style. They have a 
style of their own, which is, that your meal is served 
in a large number of curious oval little dishes, which 
are put before you all mixed up together, without the 
smallest regard to time or tide, or hotness, or coldness, 
or anything else ; and especially you have to this 
day what Mr. Trollope vividly describes, a waiter who 
stands over you as a sort of taskmaster, and makes 
you eat your meal, not at your convenience but at his. 
I do think it is a very great pity that the founders 
of the American Republic did not introduce a little 
Scotch cookery among their early institutions. I am 
very happy to say that more recent reforms have 
introduced one excellent Scotch food which we are 
too much inclined to discard ourselves. I mean oat- 
meal porridge. They generally give cream with it — 
a very commendable arrangement. In truth, I could 
have eaten oatmeal porridge in the States with great 
satisfaction, if I had not felt insulted by the constant 
practice there of calling it ' Irish oatmeal.' The 
Ameiicans themselves seem to have a partiality to 
live upon oysters, which are there produced in enor- 
mous quantity, and I believe of excellent quality, for 
I do not eat them myself. Their beef is generally 
good, but not always well cooked; the mutton not 
good. They have a most delightful variety of 
different kinds of bread, not only of wheat but of 
maize, corn, buckwheat, and other things. They 
drink a very great deal of tea and coffee, and a great 
deal of excellent milk; but what is unpardonable, 



26 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

considering the excellent dairy facilities which they 
have, the butter is always salt and bad. When I 
speak of tea or coffee, however, I should say that 
coffee is the principal drink of the States, and is 
generally very well made. Tea is comparatively quite 
rare, and is almost always very badly made. I shall 
notice separately in connection with the drink ques- 
tion the, to us, extraordinary absence of wine and 
other liquors from their meals. 

The railway carriages are another American insti- 
tution which are quite different from ours. They are 
very long and heavy conveyances, with entrances only 
from the ends, and seats ranged along; each side. There 
seems to be no objection on principle to a variety of 
classes. On all the chief railways of the Northern 
States there are drawing-room cars, which practically 
take the place of first-class carriages. But the ordi- 
nary American railway carriage, which is the only car- 
riage without distinction of class on a large proportion 
of railways, is such that it may be generally said that 
all are second-class. In these travelling in America 
is somewhat cheaper than travelling first-class in this 
country ; and so far as my experience goes there is 
generally an entire absence of any rough and rowdy 
element, such as some have supposed must result from 
an amalgamation of classes. I am inclined to think 
the people who most suffer from the American system 
are those who travel third-class in this country. For 
them there is no cheap third-class, and consequently 
for them travelling is much dearer than in this 
country. There seem to be no railway porters in 



CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 27 

America. People manage themselves and take care 
of themselves, and the railways run through the 
middle of streets and towns without any fencing. I 
asked, ' Are people not constantly run down and 
killed ? ' The answer I got was, 'They sometimes are ; 
but they learn to take care of themselves.' For 
travelling at night there are the Pullman cars, or 
other cars in the style of the Pullman. But here, too, 
it struck me, there was a too extreme uniformity 
and great absence of variety. The cars are very 
gorgeous and not very comfortable — sometimes very 
crowded and much overheated. The great steamers 
which run on protected waters and rivers are, I think, 
the most comfortable institutions in the way of 
travelling that exist in America or in any other 
country. 

If you want to have an idea of the general state of 
society which exists in America I would put it to you 
in this way — if in this country you were to kill oif all 
the country gentlemen, with all their wives and fami- 
lies, and make the farmers the owners of the land 
which they till, you would have something which you 
could hardly distinguish from America. American- 
towns are very much like English towns. The social 
arrangements of Kirkcaldy are very like the social 
arrangements of an American country town. But there 
is this great difference, in the outward aspect, that in an 
American town of this size you would have very large 
and very broad streets, lined with trees ; and very nice 
villa-like houses, probably on the whole better than 
our houses. In that respect the American town is a 



28 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

better and a nicer place than our towns — in dry 
weather, at any rate. But when it comes to rain, as 
the streets are all unpaved, they are exceedingly 
muddy. I have said that the country gentlemen ele- 
ment is altogether wanting ; but the plutocrats, the 
money people, are quite as strong in America as in this 
country — perhaps stronger; that is socially, and in 
everything not regulated by the first principles of the 
American Constitution and system — these they cannot 
get over. In all other matters the plutocrats, it seems 
to me, rule the country even more than they do here. 
The rich people rule the press, and the press rules 
the country. I am afraid that is a good deal the case 
in most parts of the civilised world. 

There is a popular idea that the Americans are so 
civilised that they object to marriage, and that for in- 
crease of the population the Americans must depend, 
not upon themselves, but upon the foreigners. 1 be- 
lieve that this is quite a libel, The peculiar sects 
of which we hear so much are but a drop among the 
population. 1 myself saw none of them, but 1 did 
see a great many people who did not belong to these 
peculiar sects, and my decided impression is that the 
Americans marry earlier and trust to their wits to 
support a family more than we do ; that they have 
large and rapid families, just such as we have ; and 
there is not the least danger that the American 
population will die out. In nothing, I think, does 
Mr. Trollope so much libel the Americans as in the 
most odious character which he attributes to the 
average middle-class woman of America. He seems 



CHAEACTEEISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 29 

to depict lier as a kind of hideous Jezebel who in- 
vades tramway-cars and other public places, turns 
men out of their seats in the most audacious and 
unfeeling manner, and asserts women's rights with 
the most entire disregard to the rights of unhappy 
males. Perhaps Mr. Trollope's denunciations have 
had some effect in working a reform, but all I can say 
is that I saw nothing whatever of the kind. Where 
a car is crowded men will generally give seats to 
women, just as they do on the Metropolitan Railway 
in London, but I never saw anything more than this. 
On the contrary, it seemed to me that the more 
purely American of the American women — those who 
are not accustomed to sj)end money in an ostentatious 
way in Europe, and to over-dress and over-peacock 
there — are very nice people indeed. It is the ' Daisy 
Millers,' and the Daisy Millers' mammas, who to some 
extent have given the American women a bad name. 
See them at home, and they seem to me among the 
nicest of their sex. The American girls are certainly 
more independent than our girls are. They think 
it a reproach if they cannot be trusted to go with a 
young man either to a church or a theatre. I won't say 
whether that is better or worse than our system; 
but I do admire the independence of the American 
girls in helping themselves by useful employments. In 
this respect I hope many of our girls are following 
their example. Ladies of a class who would not like 
to go out as school teachers and telegraph clerks 
among us do so quite freely in America. I think the 
last school I was in before I came to Kirkcaldy was a 



30 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

black school for little ne^ro children in the Southern 
States, taught by a young white Northern lady, whom 
we should think almost superior to that sort of work. 
I am sure our women have much to learn from the 
American women in the matter of helping others and 
helping themselves. 

As to the men, I liked their style and manners. 
Generally speaking, there was comparatively little of 
the Yankee about them. I heard a story of my 
friend Mr. Holmes, the Member for Paisley, who 
made a tour in the United States, and when he got 
to Chicago he was very anxious to see a typical 
American, with his slouched hat, big boots, belt with 
revolver stuck it, and so on. He could not find 
one for a Ions: time. At last he found a man who 
exactly came up to his idea; and entering into con- 
versation with him, he said, l Have you been long 
here?' i Na,' was the answer, ' I'am jist a month 
frae GlascaV Perhaps the men too have been some- 
what affected by English criticism. At all events, 
it is now the case that in their conduct they are 
exceedingly quiet and orderly, and only spit to a 
moderate extent. In fact, as regards smoking and 
everything of that kind, the American rules are much 
more strict than ours. Mr. Trollope denounces the 
lower class of American men as rude and barbarous 
in the extreme. For my part, I can say I found 
them quite the contrary. Whenever I had occasion 
to talk to any of them I was generally impressed with 
their civility, intelligence, and education. One thing 
particularly struck me, and that was the quiet and 



CIIAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 31 

orderly character of their political meetings, I may 
almost say the dullness of them, for I think they 
were somewhat too quiet. They never interrupt a 
speaker, but always let him say out his say without 
the smallest hindrance, however distasteful his ideas 
may be to some of them. When I said that some- 
times they are very orderly, to the point of dullness, 
I might illustrate that by telling you of an American 
politician whom I met. He had been up attending a 
political meeting at a country town. I said, ' How 
did you get on ? ' ' Oh,' he replied, ' exceedingly 
well ; I gave them three solid hours of it, and they 
were as quiet as if they had been in church.' Upon 
the whole, my impression of the Americans is this, 
that in point of energy and enterprise they are 
rather above the average Britisher, but not above 
the average Scotchman — about, I may say, equal to 
an average Scotchman. They are certainly very 
pushing and go-ahead people ; but then if they make 
a great deal of money they also spend it very quickly 
— there is no doubt that they are inclined to be extra- 
vagant. 

Everyone who goes to America is very much 
struck by the respect for law which prevails there. 
They are, in fact, an extremely law-abiding people ; 
and since their great war, having learned by experi 
ence how horrible war is, they have come through 
great trials and difficulties with wonderful avoid- 
ance of irritation and injurious conflict. I know no 
people in the world who accept defeat in so thor- 
oughly good-humoured a way; and in this respect I 



32 bikd's-eye view of the hotted states. 

think tliat the tone and temper of the people of the 
Southern States is very highly to be praised. 

There is an idea prevalent in this country that 
in regard to many questions of social science, the 
management of prisons and such like matters, the 
Americans have gone far ahead of ourselves. I did 
not go very minutely into these matters, for I had 
not time, but so far as I could learn I failed to find 
that they are much ahead of us. I heard quite as 
many complaints of prison management in America 
as ever I did in this country, and I doubt very much 
whether their sanitary and other improvements are 
greatly superior to ours. I am inclined to believe 
that Edinburgh and Glasgow have done quite as 
much in the way of social science progress as any 
American town. 

I was specially interested in the condition of the 
Southern States, and I spent a good deal of my time 
there. They have no doubt suffered from war in a 
pecuniary way as well as by losing all the flower of 
the population ; but they have a good heart, and are 
doing well. This subject, however, is a special one, 
which I shall probably take occasion to explain in 
another shape, for it is scarcely possible to do so now. 

I do not know that there is anything very special 
in the larger American cities, except the trees in the 
streets which I have mentioned, and the strictly rec- 
tangular character in their arrangement which leads to 
the numbering of the streets in the way you have often 
heard. There is one institution in New York which 
struck me as very successful, and that is the elevated 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 33 

railways just opened. Instead of destroying the 
.narrower streets, full of traffic, by laying tramways 
in them, they leave the streets for the ordinary traffic, 
and carry the railway on elevated girders above the 
heads of the people and the carts. That seems to be 
successfully done in New York, and I hope to see it 
done in London also. The Elevated Railway is quite 
a new institution in New York — only started in the 
last few months ; but throughout all the towns the 
tramway-car is a most universal and successful insti- 
tution. The whole population use the tram-cars ; in 
most places there are comparatively few private car* 
riages, and cabs are always dear. 

My complaint of the American cities is that they 
are too big — that is to say, too many people come to 
the towns who had much better go and work in the 
country. I was almost tempted to say that, among 
the Americans, for every man who really works with 
his hands there seems to be two who seek to live 
by speculating upon him — especially by insuring his 
life — that seems to be the great business now to 
which retired generals, governors, and other great men 
devote themselves. It seemed to me that Washing- 
ton is the pleasantest and best of American cities. 
Mr. Trollope describes it in very horrible terms, but 
it has certainly been very much improved since those 
days, and appeared to me to be a charming place. 
Boston, as you may have heard, is a delightfully 
English-looking place. Chicago and those new ci- 
ties seem to have been overdone and to be much too 
lame. 



34 bied's-eye view of the united states. 

It is always very easy to see the cities of America ; 
everybody expects you to see the cities ; but it is much 
more difficult to see the country. Railways there 
are in abundance, and wherever there is a railway you 
can go, but there is an extreme want of good roads. 
The Americans seem to have skipped over that stage 
in human progress and to have gone direct from no 
roads to railways. If you want to hire a trap to 
drive ten miles into the country you will find it 
scarcely possible to get such a thing. But the 
Americans themselves have, for country use, most 
admirable private vehicles — infinitely lighter than our 
carriages, quite as lasting, and every way superior; 
and I cannot imagine why we don't take a leaf out of 
their book in this respect. Whenever you are with 
friends they are always ready to drive you over the 
country with their fast-trotting horses and light bug- 
gies — admirable both horses and buggies are. That 
is the only way in which you can see America. To 
my view no man has seen America who merely goes 
from town to town, and does not see the country in 
the w^ay I have described, for the real backbone of the 
population of America consists of the small farmers 
who cover the country. The American Government 
have been exceedingly wise in the provisions which 
they have made against land -jobbing. Land is not 
appropriated in immense blocks by the early settlers, 
as in most of our colonies. The amount which each 
man is allowed to take up is restricted to that which 
he can beneficially farm ; and under the homestead 
law every man who settles in the country is entitled 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 60 

to a farm of this kind. I believe it is upon this sys- 
tem that the true greatness of America is founded. 

Much, too, is due to the system of free education 
which has prevailed in the common schools of the 
North for the last two or three generations. Not 
only is this so in New England, but the New 
Englanders, taking their ideas to the West, have 
developed the system still more completely in the 
Western States. For instance, in Illinois it is re- 
quired by law that there should be a school every 
two miles at least. A certain proportion of the 
land in every township is always set apart for the 
maintenance of schools. The State maintains not 
only primary schools but also high schools in number 
sufficient to meet the demand for higher instruction ; 
and even, in some places, agricultural colleges and 
such special institutions. The universities and col- 
leges for general education of the highest class of 
all are the only institutions not included in the 
general system of free public instruction ; but there 
are many excellent universities, some of which have 
large endowments, while some have received some 
public aid under local arrangements. In addition to 
endowments the cost of public education is met, first, 
by a rate upon land, and, second, by a poll-tax upon 
the people. By these means sufficient funds are 
provided in the Northern States ; but in the South 
the funds are very deficient, though the system has 
been more or less introduced there also. There are a 
good many grumblers in America, as there are with us 
— a good many people who complain of the highness of 



36 BIPwD's-ETE view of the united states. 

the rates, and who say that they should not be taxed 
to teach a labourer's daughter to play upon the piano. 
Now, about the piano I won't say whether I agree 
with them — perhaps I am rather heretical on musical 
subjects; but I am impressed with the belief, not 
only that we should make education as cheap and 
free as possible to the poorer classes, but also that 
the public may fairly do something for the middle 
and higher education, both in view of the fact that 
the middle classes pay largely to the education rates, 
and that a ladder may be provided by which the poor 
may mount upwards. In America the children of 
the well-to-do classes, merchants and professional men 
and such like, habitually attend the public schools, 
girls as well as boys ; indeed, the higher schools are 
much more used by girls than by boys, for the boys 
go early into business, while the girls continue their 
education. I did not find the character of the higher 
education to be so much reformed as I should have 
expected. There is still a good deal of Latin and 
Greek taught ; and there is not so universal a system 
of instruction in the useful sciences as I looked for ; 
but much is done in special colleges, and improve- 
ments are being effected which, no doubt, will soon 
become general. 

Meantime I think it may be said that the Amer- 
icans owe their great success in certain branches 
of mechanical manufacture to their own ingenuity 
and energy, rather than to any public system of 
technical instruction. They certainly are marvel- 
lously clever as inventors. They have a patent 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 37 

law, and consider it to be much better than ours. 
They examine and test patents before they are passed, 
and have a great patent show at Washington. I am 
not qualified to tell you anything of their manu- 
facturing processes, and indeed was not on this oc- 
casion long enough in the North-Eastern States and 
cities to see much of these things ; but they are readily 
accessible to any of you who choose to go there. The 
Americans certainly show immense energy in all 
mercantile and manufacturing operations, and leave 
no stone unturned to develop the resources of the 
country. 

I have often been asked, ' How about American 
rascality ? Are people there worse than our direct- 
ors ? ' I can only say that I think they are about 
the same. The fact is that American law is entirely 
founded on English law, and the safeguards against 
new-fashioned rascality offered by a law designed 
only to meet a rascality which is not new-fashioned 
are about as great in America as in this country — as 
great, I think, but not greater. There is a great deal 
of mercantile rascality there as well as here ; but I 
have heard it said that some people are rather jealous 
of the directors of the Glasgow Bank for having done 
a ' bigger thing ' than they have done. As is the case 
with us, a great many fraudulent people escape the 
punishment which they merit ; and there have been 
some great scandals, not only in joint-stock affairs 
but in municipal affairs. I think, however, that we 
must not judge of the American people by what has 
taken place in the New York Municipality ; that is, 



38 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

I believe, exceptional. Most of their towns are as 
well managed as ours. My impression is that when 
they do take fraudulent people in hand they are 
more thorough in their proceedings than we some-: 
times are, and that a more adequate punishment is 
sometimes dealt out. 



PROTECTION AND RECIPROCITY. 

In these days of commercial distress and pro- 
phecies of down-going you will probably expect me to 
say a word about free trade and reciprocity and such 
like matters ; for whereas in this country we have been 
for a good many years the upholders of free trade, in 
America I have been among a people who have become 
the strenuous upholders of protectionist doctrines. 
They protect everything and everybody, and if there 
are any objectors they silence them by giving them 
protection too ; so that the protection of one thing 
leads to a dozen others. I am no expert in commercial 
matters, and cannot pretend to sit in judgment where 
doctors disagree. I am, also, no rabid i political eco- 
nomist,' if I may so express it. I do not treat the 
dogmas of political economists as if they were emana- 
tions from on high ; and I also am not one of those 
people who think that when Englishmen differ from 
the rest of the world Englishmen must necessarily 
be in the right. I cannot say whether there are any 
circumstances in which a certain amount of protection 
really might be beneficial, in the sense in which a 
glass cover is beneficial in certain stages of a growing 



PROTECTION" AND RECIPROCITY. 39 

plant ; but of this I am sure, that if there are any such 
uses of protection, very great abuses, much exceeding 
the uses, speedily supervene. It is hard to persuade 
people in America that they have not greatly ben- 
efited by protection. They point to the extension 
and improvement of their manufactures. I never 
admitted that that was due to protection ; but that 
there has been a vast improvement in America within 
the last few years no man can doubt. On the other 
hand, one sees at every turn great evils resulting from 
the abuse of protection — one of the most prominent 
I can mention being the American shipping trade, 
which has been absolutely annihilated by protection. 
Only yesterday I read an account of the carrying 
trade in China, which, when I was round there a 
few years ago, was very largely carried in American 
ships ; but now American shipping has almost dis- 
appeared from that trade, because the Americans 
will neither allow the materials for shipbuilding to 
be imported without an enormous duty being placed 
upon them, nor will they allow an American citizen 
to bring a ready-made ship from the Clyde. 

Some of the protectionist duties are quite useless^ 
as they act in an almost prohibitory way on things 
not produced in America. And some seem of a wan- 
tonly injurious character, as, for instance, a very high 
duty on quinine, so much wanted as a remedy for 
the prevalent ■ fever and chills ' of America. I think 
no one denies that the details of the tariff should be 
reformed. 

Then I have no doubt that the system of protection 



40 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

followed in the United States does in many ways 
enhance the cost of living, both directly, by enhancing 
the price of commodities, and indirectly, by pandering 
to that disposition to prefer high gains and lavish 
expenditure to moderate gains and careful expendi- 
ture, which is the bane of the country. Our people 
are open to the reproach, often levelled against them, 
that if they make more they spend more and save 
less than the people of some other countries ; but in 
this respect the Americans, or at any rate large 
classes of Americans, much exceed them. The cry 
there is always for great profits and high wages, but 
economy of living is not studied. One notices in the 
smallest things how much more the distributors are 
allowed to appropriate than with us. You can't buy 
a two-cent paper in the street for less than five cents ; 
and in a country where apples are so abundant that 
you may almost pick them up for nothing they are 
retailed in the towns dearer than in London. 

Not only is the system of protection popularised 
by its universality, but no doubt people get used to, 
and do not fully realise, any indirect impost. The 
excuse for the Indian salt duty of 2,000 per cent, 
is that people get accustomed to it. So it is that 
the Americans hardly realise the burdens which they 
bear. They argue that theirs is not a narrow pro- 
tection, since their country is so large and contains 
so many States, with varying climates, peoples, and 
industries, that there is within the limits of the Union 
abundantly active competition, affording ample stimu- 
lus to progress. They rely on the recent enormous 



PKOTECTION AND EECIPEOCITY. 41 

improvement of their manufactures as showing the 
success of their system. When one comes to parti- 
culars, too, it is somewhat difficult to make out a 
strong case against them. The daily wants of the 
ordinary population are food, houses, clothing, and 
such luxuries as tea and coffee, spirits and tobacco. 
Now, food and the materials for houses are certainly 
cheaper in America than with us ; the taxes on 
alcoholic drinks and tobacco are lighter than ours ; 
tea and coffee are free. Even as regards clothing I 
was so constantly assured as to be almost persuaded 
that their cotton goods — especially what are called 
1 domestics ' — are as cheap as and better than ours ; 
and though woollen goods are dearer, they say that the 
lower class of woollens, made all over the States from 
native wool, and a class of mixed goods, much used 
by the Southern and Western populations, are not 
materially dearer. It is in the better description of 
clothing used by the upper classes, the finer woollens 
and silks, and all ladies' clothing, that there is an 
enormous difference — the cost of these in America is 
nearly double, and people who go to Europe almost 
pay the expenses of the trip by saving in the stock 
of personal clothes they bring from thence and get 
through the Custom House free of duty. As regards 
linens the Americans are behind, and I hope even 
protection will not enable them to dispense with 
Kirkcaldy goods. Iron and steel are a good deal 
dearer than in England ; but when we throw in the 
cost of carriage, &c, the difference is not so great. 
It seems to be conceded that the classes employed in 



42 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

this branch of industry in the States have already suf- 
fered so much from bad times, and are so dangerous,, 
that it would not be possible to establish free trade 
in the iron trade till times are more prosperous. The 
Americans certainly possess magnificent coalfields and 
immense deposits of iron, and they are advancing 
greatly in the manufacture. I am afraid our iron-; 
masters will never obtain that market again. The 
anthracite coal, of which we have heard so much, is' 
confined to certain very limited localities in one part 
of Pennsylvania ; but throughout vast tracts in 
Pennsylvania and other Eastern States, and again in 
the Western States,, the fields of soft coal are almost 
unlimited. 

There is no denying that in some departments 
the ingenuity of the Americans has enabled them to 
rival us in foreign markets to some degree, notwith- 
standing the greater dearness of some of their materials. 
I believe it is the fact that they have been exporting 
railway engines, not only to Russia, but to our own 
Australian colonies ; their agricultural implements are 
now sent all over the world; and even their watches 
are exported to the Continent of Europe — to countries 
hitherto supplied by the Swiss. On the other hand, 
our Sheffield goods, such as knives and scissors, cannot 
be rivalled in America, and hold their own there in 
spite of protection. 

There is little hope that the Americans will soon 
adopt free trade princijjles, unless, indeed, they con- 
tinue their present rapid improvement in manufactures 
so far as to become a large exporting people. Then 



PROTECTION AND PwECTPROCTTY. 43 

no doubt it will suit their book, and they will become 
free traders. Their idea is to raise their enterprise 
in the hothouse atmosphere of protection at home 
until it gets so large and strong that they may knock 
away the glass and let it spread over the outer world. 
Whether they will accomplish that, time only will 
show ; but I am quite sure that the people of this 
country should not give in to them. Though free 
traders as such now hardly exist in America, there is 
in some parts of the country a feeling that a tariff 
more designed for revenue might be the means of 
relieving the several States of the internal revenue 
system of which they complain as being both ex- 
pensive and harassing. I heard a Virginian complain 
that the tobacco duty raised on the manufacture there 
makes the internal taxation of the State heavier than 
that of other and richer States ; and the Southern 
highlanders of the Alleghanies say that they would 
get on very well if it were not for the ' ivldsley Moch 
ade] which interferes with their honest industry in 
that article. It is likely enough that the tariff may 
be modified to get rid of some useless and injurious re- 
strictions, and to increase the customs revenue to some 
degree, but free trade there will not be for the present. 
There still remains the reciprocity question. It 
is said, and I myself have no doubt it is true, that if 
all nations would accept free trade, and all barriers 
were broken down, it would be best for all parties ; 
but then, some people add, since almost all other 
nations do impose heavy protective duties, 'Would 
it not be well for us to impose moderate duties, such, 



44 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

at all events, as to equal the taxes which are paid 
by our own manufacturers, the workmen who live in 
this country and produce their goods at home \ ' Here 
also I will not pretend to decide upon grounds of po- 
litical economy ; but I put this practical question to 
you, ' if you admit that doctrine, what goods would 
you tax on their import into this country ? ' I don't 
myself see what you could tax. We export manufac- 
tures, and we import food and the raw materials for 
manufacture ; and because America taxes your manu- 
factures would you tax the food of the people — the 
wheat, the beef, and the bacon which come from 
America ? It is impossible ; the people would not 
submit to anything of the kind. Then, would you 
tax the raw materials of your manufactures? You 
know very well that that would be cutting your own 
throat. And so I bring it to this, what would you tax ? 
There might be a few luxuries which it might be right 
enough to tax, but practically there is no great trade 
which you could tax ; and it is on that ground I say 
that reciprocity is a mere theory, and not a practical 
question. Then some people recommend restriction of 
production as the remedy. That seems to me also to 
be a most suicidal system. True, in times of pros- 
perity and excessive trade it may be well to say to 
capitalists, ' Take care ; don't overdo it ; don't try to 
make more money than the trade will justify; don't 
run up wages to a point at which they cannot be main- 
tained.' But when you come to hard times and bad 
trade it seems to me that capitalists will be ready 
enough to contract ; and as contraction of production 



THE DRINK QUESTION. 45 

means contraction of employment for the workpeople, 
it is the worst possible thing for them. I have seen a 
good deal of many countries, and I am quite con- 
vinced of this, that the only chance of our maintain- 
ing our supremacy is, that we should do that which 
we have done in the past, namely, make our goods as 
many, as cheap, and as durable as possible, and try 
to undersell all foreign countries in what we may call 
the neutral markets of the world ; that is, the coun- 
tries which do not manufacture for themselves. There 
are still quite enough of them to maintain our trade, 
and we may still live, if we can occupy them and beat 
the protectionists. We shall have to look sharp to do 
even this. The Americans have not yet very seriously 
rivalled us in foreign markets, but they have begun to 
do it to a small extent ; and we shall not keej3 them 
out unless we can undersell them, and undersell them 
without deteriorating the quality of British goods. 
We must produce good articles in enormous quanti- 
ties, and cheaper than anyone else, if we are to re- 
main ahead of the rest of the world. 



TEE DRINK QUESTION. 

Of all the questions affecting the low-Teuton coun- 
tries I think none is really so important as the drink 
question, and I paid a good deal of attention to it when 
I was in America. I was not in Maine, and did not go 
into the well-worn question of the Maine Liquor Law; 
but I noticed the ordinary practice in the States through 
which I travelled, and found it pretty uniform. 



46 bied's-eye view of the united states. 

The first thing that I noticed in travelling $ 
the remarkable feature in the American meals, 
people drink no alcoholic liquors at all; it seem -: 
be contrary to their habits, and I may almost say i J 
good morals and good manners, to do so — in public at 
least. In a great American hotel, where you meet 
hundreds of people, you will probably not see one 
who takes anything stronger than tea and coffee with 
his meals ; or if you do he is a foreigner. They drink 
a great deal of milk and such innocent things, but 
neither beer, nor wine, nor spirits. "Wine is very dear, 
and that may be one reason why it is not seen. 

I know it is said, ' Ah, that is all very well, but 
the men go and drink afterwards at the bars.' Some 
of them do so, but I am bound to say that I was 
exceedingly surprised to find how little frequented 
these bars are. If you want first-class American 
drinks you must go to the cafes on the Boulevards of 
Paris — for you won't get them in America. That is 
my experience. In some parts of the country it is a 
common form of civility to invite a friend or a 
stranger to i take a drink ' and to treat him at the 
bar ; and there are some men's evening parties at 
which wine is introduced, but one does not see much 
of this kind of thing. 

Among the people at large the public and evi- 
dent drinking is, I think, less than with us, and if a 
good deal is consumed it is done in a more decent 
kind of way. 1 have not been able to compare the 
statistics exactly with respect to the amount of .drink 
consumed. A great deal of whisky, no doubt, is 



THE DRINK QUESTION. 47 

m .k ; but the revenue derived from alcoholic liq- 
3 is not so large as in this country, and it cer- 
8 ij is the case that one sees much less drunken- 
ness. I am told that this is very muck due to the 
climate. People say that whereas in Scotland some 
Scotchmen with strong constitutions drink a good 
deal of whisky all their lives and die in their beds at 
eighty — not many of them, I believe — a man cannot 
possibly do that kind of thing in America. He 
would be killed in a very short time. Thus neces- 
sity begets a certain moderation. I am told that 
there is nowhere in America the state of things said 
to prevail in some English places, where a large 
proportion of some classes are so drunk upon a Sun- 
day that they take Monday to recover, and clont re- 
turn to work till Tuesday. However, I hoj3e that is 
an exaggeration. There is a Sunday-closing law 
almost everywhere, with no exception for bond fide 
travellers or anyone else. It is more or less strictly 
observed by the natives, and certainly a stranger can 
get nothing. I was myself reformed in consequence 
in a very fortunate manner. I used to think a little 
whisky-and- water good to make me sleep ; but not 
being able to get it on Sundays, and finding that I 
slept quite as well, I did without it .on other days 
too, to my great benefit. 

I fear the drink question is not one which can be 
very effectually dealt with by law in the present state 
of feeling. We must always have greater reliance 
upon moral and social means. One result of what I 
have seen and experienced in America is to make me 



48 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

believe that it is much better to go in for total absti- 
nence than temperance. It seems to me that drink is 
like gambling, it is very easy to abstain altogether; 
abstinence does no harm, and very soon one does 
not feel the want of it. But if you drink in modera- 
tion it is like gambling in moderation — you are very 
apt to go on. Some people are not much tempted to 
excess, but some constitutions are tempted, and they 
do go on to excess. The Americans have found out 
this, and no doubt it is for this reason that it has 
become so much the practice of the better classes 
among them to abstain altogether. I must^ say, 
then, that my advice to those in this country who 
are sincerely anxious to cure their less restrained 
fellow-countrymen of bad habits is, that they should 
rather show an example of abstinence than simply 
preach temperance to their neighbours and try to cur- 
tail the public-houses. People never do have very 
much influence who do not practise what they preach. 
My strong belief is that if the well-to-do classes, the 
moral, religious, and evangelical classes, were to 
banish wine from their tables and take to milk, they 
might with much greater advantage and effect try 
to put down the public-houses of the poorer classes. 
Then, as regards legislation on the subject, a man 
who becomes convinced of that which he had believed 
before becomes very thoroughly convinced indeed, 
and that is pretty much the case with me on this 
drink question. I have been always inclined to sus- 
pect that the matter should be dealt with in a way 
which has not many advocates in this country, and I 



THE DRINK QUESTION. 49 

have been agreeably surprised to find that in America 
the practice is actually that to which rny own opinion 
inclined. I believe that it is a very great mistake 
to deal with the matter simply by limiting the num- 
ber of public-houses, because the result is to create 
a monopoly and vested interest in those public-houses 
which remain. I should say that in this matter 
there has been a kind of alliance between those who 
serve God and those who serve Mammon — between 
the good people who wish to put down public- 
houses and the public-house keepers who do not wish 
any more houses to compete with them. Thus the 
worshippers of God and the worshippers of Marmnon, 
being united, have been so strong that they have 
carried everything before them^ and the result is that 
a great monopoly interest has been created. .Now, I 
entirely admit that. in rural places where there never 
has been a public-house it is a very great evil that 
one should be set up, and that there should be some 
local power of veto on it ; but, on the other hand, I 
believe that if you have half a dozen public-houses 
in a street, no reason exists why two or three more 
should not be allowed, if, in the way of free trade, they 
are established. On the contrary, it is the existence 
of a valuable monopoly on the part of the restricted 
number of houses which makes practically impos- 
sible any public action whatever — whether the pro- 
hibition of sales, the Gothenburg system, or anything 
else. I think the first step towards any great measure 
of reform is to make the trade free, paradox as that 
may seem ; for when you have abolished monopolies 



50 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

and vested rights which have no right to be, you are 
then free to act in the public interest. This is the 
view taken by the Americans. The laws of different 
States are different — I cannot answer for all — but I 
inquired in several, and in none of them did I find 
that there was that disgraceful and demoralising con- 
test for licenses which takes place to such an excessive 
degree in England, and to some degree in Scotland 
too. In places where the sale is permitted at all 
there is no privilege, all the citizens being treated 
equally ; the manufacture is taxed, the sale is taxed, 
licenses to sell are very heavily taxed ; but any man 
of good character, who submits to the rules and keeps 
the rules, gets the license under a regular system, 
without making it a matter of canvassing, or argu- 
mentation by lawyers. On the other hand, in certain 
localities the sale of spirituous liquors is prohibited, 
not merely the retail in public-houses, but all sales 
whatever ; and that seems to me a much more logical 
process. I never could reconcile myself to closing 
the poor man's club and leaving open the shops 
where the better classes or any other class may sup- 
ply themselves with liquor to consume at home ; nor 
could I see any reason for giving one grocer a license 
and prohibiting another. If you prohibit at all, I 
think you should prohibit all. The Americans have 
not got Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Permissive Bill. I 
could not ascertain very exactly the reason for the 
course which they take, but in many different States 
they follow the same course, which is this — that when 
there is a very strong wish to prohibit the sale of 



RELIGION. 51 

liquors in any particular locality a bill for that pur- 
pose is brought in and passed by the local State 
Legislature. I presume that, being so treated, the 
question does not absolutely turn upon a mere local 
majority, but if there are objectors they have an 
opportunity of being heard, after which the Home 
Rule Parliament of the particular State decides as 
it thinks best ; and it is undoubtedly the case that 
in almost every State in which I inquired a number 
of such bills are passed, and under them the Sale of 
liquors is prohibited in considerable localities. Some- 
times, but not very often, the bill takes the shape of 
giving an option to the particular locality to be deter- 
mined by vote. My own opinion tends very much 
to prohibition, though I feel that the world generally 
is not ripe for it yet. I should, however, be very glad 
to see an experiment made in particular localities 
which are pretty well united in wishing for it. On 
that ground I would gladly see some measure em- 
bodying the principle of vesting a power somewhere 
to stop the sale of liquors in particular localities 
when the general sense of the population desires it ; 
although I do not know that I would let a mere ma- 
jority impose such a measure on a large and reluctant 
minority. 

RELIGION. 

I had expected to find America overrun by new- 
fangled ideas in religion, but it did not appear to be 
so. By far the larger portion of the people adhere 



52 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

to the good old -fashioned Churches, or perhaps in 
many cases I should say to an old-fashioned Congrega- 
tional system, for there seems to be a great disposition 
to Congregationalism in the United States. The Epis- 
copalians are but a small minority. The most impor- 
tant sects are the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Bap- 
tists; but it seems to me that in America there is 
much inclination among religious sects which do not 
differ in essentials to come together on common ground. 
The Young Men's Christian Associations — which are, 
I believe, unsectarian — are widely spread in the coun- 
try, and do excellent work. The number of Irish 
who go to America is so great that, added to a num- 
ber of Southern Germans, they make a considerable 
Catholic population. But I do not think- that that re- 
ligion is suited to the genius of the people of America, 
white or black. The Catholics do not make progress. 
The blacks do not at all accept them. In their own 
way these blacks are an exceedingly religious Chris- 
tian people ; but it strikes me as a sad thing that the 
black and the white Churches are now entirely sepa- 
rated from one another. The blacks have now every- 
where set up black preachers, who do not preach at all 
badly. Their congregations sing exceedingly well, 
and they are more in earnest than most white people. 
Although, as I have said, one sees very little of 
the very new-fangled religions, there are a good many 
divisions and subdivisions of the old sects in differ- 
ent parts of the country. In the great hotels in the 
cities of the interior one sees a board with a list of 
the various Churches, and they are certainly pretty 



KELIGION. 53 

numerous. However, one recognises most of them. 
The only prevalent sect (especially in the West) 
which struck me as novel was one called simply 
' Christians,' or sometimes ' Campbellites,' having been 
founded by a Campbell. They claim to be unsec- 
tarian Christians. I thought I should like to belong 
to that persuasion. 

I was anxious to know how people get on in Amer- 
ica without an Established Church — whether they 
are the worse for that want. We have all been a good 
deal exercised on that subject. I have had much 
difficulty in making up my mind on it. I have had 
an old affection for the Scotch Establishment which I 
cannot very easily surrender. It is not that I have 
had any high-flying ideas about the union of Church 
and State and the advantage of clothing the Church 
in purple and fine linen, and making her a ruler of 
men ; I believe that nothing could be more contrary 
to the Spirit of Christianity, nothing worse for the 
Church or worse for the State than that ; and if 1 had 
any doubt about that, what I have seen on the Con- 
tinent of Europe has quite solved all those doubts. 
But I have thought, and I think still, that if we were 
all of one religion it might be much better to combine 
to maintain a common minister paid by rates — and 
teinds or tithes are nothing but an old form of rates 
— just as we find it better to maintain a common 
school by rates — rather than allow ministers to depend 
upon the bounty of their congregations, and especially 
of the richer among their ^ congregations. We in 
Scotland seem to have satisfied ourselves that this is 



54 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

tlie best and most economical system in regard to 
schools. 

Now, formerly, in America, the people took very 
much the view which I have indicated — the original 
New Englanders did establish their ministers in the 
way which I have mentioned ; they did not leave 
their support to individual zeal, but, being generally 
in each settlement of one persuasion, they rated them- 
selves for the purpose ; and in truth that was exactly 
what was done by the early Reformers in Scotland. 
That was a system which was very successful for a 
very long period ; and if circumstances had not 
changed I think no one would have sought to change 
it. But circumstances have changed — have changed 
in America, and have changed in Scotland; and, 
owing to the progress of modern thought and modern 
freedom, it has come to pass that the people in New 
England are not all of one sect of religion, and the 
people of Scotland are not all of one sect. There is 
a division among the people on religious subjects, 
and that division is not unattended with considerable 
jealousy and rivalry, and, I am afraid I must say, 
sometimes some bad feeling. Now, in America, as 
soon as it was found that people were no longer 
unanimous, but that there was considerable division, 
the course they took was to abolish all State aid to 
all Churches, and to let every sect make their own 
arrangements with regard to their religious establish- 
ments. I have watched this subject with very great 
interest. In order to ascertain how this system 
worked I made it my duty to see whether the in- 



EELIGIO^. DO 

terests of religion suffered, or whether any other 
evils had attended the free system in America. I 
was entirely satisfied that religion had in no degree 
suffered ; on the contrary, the people of America are 
to the full as religious as any people in the world 
— as religious as the people of Scotland, and. that is 
saying a great deal. Not only is this so in the old 
settled States of New England, New York, and Penn- 
sylvania, but I found — I confess somewhat to my sur- 
prise — that it is so also in the Western and Southern 
States. We have an idea that in the West people are 
rather rough, and I had half -expected to find that 
after a certain point they had left a good deal of their 
religion behind them, but it really is not so. In St. 
Louis and Kansas, in the West, and Carolina and 
Georgia, in the South, they are very decorous and 
religious peojjle, with abundance of churches. The 
only drawback is that, as with us, there are some- 
times three or four different churches, when one 
would suffice, if people would only all agree to go to 
it; but as they don't agree I don't see that any great 
harm comes from their having separate churches — 
though I am not without hope that, as liberal feelings 
progress, they may agree, and unite on the original 
simple principles of Christianity, getting rid of theo- 
logical dogmas and difficulties. 

Well, then, if religion does not suffer in America 
for want of Establishments, I am quite sure that 
peace and good- will greatly benefit. I was immensely 
struck by the entire elimination of religion from pol- 
itics in that country, and the absolute want of any 



56 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

inclination to hate one's neighbour on account of re- 
ligion. Every man does as to him seems best, and 
no other man hates him, worries hirn, or avoids his 
society on that account. Politically and socially 
America is not divided by religious cliques. Politics 
have no streak of religion in them ; a man lives as 
he likes, without being troubled by his neighbour ; 
and dies as he likes, without his neighbour inquiring 
to what persuasion he belonged. I confess, then, I 
now feel that I should like to see religion separated 
from politics. I should be glad to see that done in 
this country, when it can be done without creating 
an amount of disturbance and bad blood, which 
would make the cure worse than the disease. But I 
also feel this, that the existing Establishment in Scot- 
land is the least offensive religious establishment in 
the world, and is not an overwhelming evil. I can 
perfectly well sleep in my bed with the knowledge 
that the Church of Scotland still exists. I dare say 
the day is not very far distant when the thing may 
be done without the great change and great evils 
which some people seem to apprehend. I met a dig- 
nitary of the English Church in Canada — a Church 
which was disestablished by our countryman, Lord 
Elgin — and, I said to him, ' How do you get on in 
your disestablished character ? ' ' Well,' he said ; 6 we 
did not like it at all at first ; we thought ourselves 
very ill-used ; but now we have come to like it, and 
are quite convinced that it is best. Formerly there 
was great jealousy and dislike of us on account of our 
position ; now all that has passed away. Everyone 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 57 

is most friendly. We were disestablished on liberal 
terms ; we have done the best we can for ourselves, 
and we get on very well indeed.' 

THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 

I cannot properly explain to you in a few words 
the political system of the United States, nor can I 
quite compare the Congress with our Parliament. 
The functions of the two bodies are really quite dif- 
ferent. As I have already said, the United States 
are not one country, but forty countries, and the civil, 
criminal, and domestic laws of all sorts do not apper- 
tain to the central authority, but to the separate 
States, each having its own laws. Till one visits the 
country perhaps one hardly realises how completely 
this is the case. Neither in regard to marriage and 
inheritance, or the punishment of crimes, or the man- 
agement of railways, or anything else, is there any 
general law whatever ; the laws of each State are 
made by the separate Legislature of that State. Con- 
sequently, the Congress of the United States, having 
nothing to do with these things, is confined to the 
few functions which the Constitution vests in it, and 
which are, in fact, mainly financial ; for it is neces- 
sary to raise a sufficient revenue to support the army 
and navy*, and diplomatic service, and to pay the in- 
terest of the debt. The necessity of raising a customs 
revenue involves the question of the Tariff and the 
whole question of free trade or protection, which thus 
comes before Congress. The coinage and currency are 



58 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

common to all the States, and are managed by Con- 
gress, which has also established common patent and 
copyright laws. It has power to establish a general 
bankruptcy law, and did pass a temporary law of the 
kind after the war, but it has expired, and there is 
none now. The Post-office is almost the only institu- 
tion beyond these which is common to all the States. 
I should mention, however, that, in connection with 
foreign commerce and the customs revenue, the United 
States undertake the charge of the principal harbours 
and the great rivers, and the expenditure connected 
with them — a circumstance which gives rise to a good 
deal of rivalry of local interests, and to considerable 
opportunities for exercising influence by means of the 
public purse. 

The revenue of the United States is mainly de- 
rived from three sources : the sea-customs and two 
great internal taxes, that on spirituous liquors and 
that on tobacco. 

The laws of all the States, except the old French 
colony of Louisiana, are based on the common law of 
England, to which reference is constantly made, al- 
though a great and varying body of statute law has 
been built up over it in the various States. Still 
very much of the old English system remains, and 
one is surprised to find old English institutions, which 
have been swept away, modified, or threatened in 
England, still surviving in most of the States. The 
reason is that some of the oldest of the English legal 
institutions and maxims, such as the grand jury, 
trial by jury in all cases indiscriminately (civil as 



POLITICAL 5TSTEM OF THE EXITED STATES. 59 

well as criminal), unanimity of the jury, the non-ex- 
examination of the accused, and such like, have been 
preserved in the American Constitutions, which are 
considered to be much more sacred than ordinary 
laws. The United States have a written Constitu- 
tion, and each State has its Constitution. The State 
Constitutions have been revised and changed pretty 
often by special Conventions empowered to do so, 
but that of the United States has been very little 
changed — in fact, never revised, only added to at rare 
intervals ; and as all the subordinate Constitutions 
must fit into that of the United States, a certain 
amount e£ sameness and continuity of old maxims is 
preserved. These Constitutions, too, make the situa- 
tion different from ours ; for the Constitutions are, 
as it were, above the laws, and th.e judges, having the 
power to interpret the Constitutions, may and often 
do declare laws illegal ; so that Congress and the State 
Assemblies are not so omnipotent as our Parliament. 
Although no State laws nor even those of Con- 
gress can violate the United States Constitution, each 
State is recognised as a sovereign power, and does 
not admit that any judicial tribunal can enforce judg- 
ments against it. For instance, by the United States 
Constitution no law can be passed impairing the obli- 
gation of contracts, and any attempt to tamper by law 
with State debts is at once set aside ; but when, as is 
now the case in some States, the people find them- 
selves unable to pay, the Legislature simply fails to 
make provision for payment, and there are no means 
of enforcing claims. 



60 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

I think a great many people in this country have 
the idea that the Americans have generally reduced 
their law to regular codes, but this is quite a mistake. 
Something has been done in that direction in New 
York and, I rather think, something in Louisiana; 
but, generally speaking, the laws are just as in Eng- 
land—common law plus the statutes. But there is a 
very useful system of digesting the laws common in 
America. Every few years the statute law is revised 
and reprinted by some competent man, and after ex- 
amination the volume is passed by the Legislature 
and issued by authority. These very useful volumes 
are called Revised Codes, but they are only collections 
of unrepealed laws. There is the Revised Code of the 
United States and the Revised Code of almost- every 
State. These volumes are certainly a great conven- 
ience — almost a necessity where people, having far- 
extended dealings or the management of great enter- 
prises, have to do with a number of States with differ- 
ent laws. I very much wish our law could be put in 
as popular a form. We particularly want that in 
Scotland, for the Scotch law seems to be a sealed book 
to everyone but a lawyer. 

Before going farther I will mention a few points, 
common both to the general Government and to the 
particular States, in which the American political 
system differs from ours. 

The Americans have no Ministries dependent on 
Parliament, and going in and out as they possess or 
lose the confidence of Parliament. Great executive 
power is vested in the President of the United States 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 61 

and in the Governors of the particular States, who 
are elected by the people (directly or indirectly), for 
fixed terms of four or two years, and hold office for 
their term, whether they agree with their Legislature 
or whether they do not. The Ministers (if not simi- 
larly elected, as they are in most States) are the 
nominees of the President or Governor, cannot sit 
in the Legislature, and are altogether free from Par- 
liamentary control. Thus the Executive is not the 
creature of Parliament, but an altogether independ- 
ent power. True, both powers are derived from the 
same sources, but then it often happens that an 
Executive elected at one date and in one way is 
opposed to a legislative majority elected at another 
date. There are always two Houses of the Legis- 
lature. As in the United States so in each State 
there is a Senate as well as an Assembly. The lat- 
ter in some degree corresponds to our House of Com- 
mons, but the Senate is very different from . our 
House of Lords. The State Senate is elected by the 
people, the United States Senators by the Legisla- 
tive body of each State ; the members of the Senate 
hold office for longer periods — for four or six years — 
and besides an equal power in the Legislature have 
a considerable control over the Executive in regard 
to high appointments and some other matters. Thus 
the position of a Senator is one of much power 
and dignity, and is much sought after. I understand 
that the place of a United States Senator elected for 
six years- (and eligible for re-election), with a con- 
siderable salary and a good deal of power and 



62 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

patronage, is generally preferred to that of Governor 
of a State. 

Every State determines for itself the question of 
the franchise and the qualification of electors. Uni- 
versal suffrage is no part of the Constitution of the 
United States, and in fact, till a comparatively recent 
date, was by no means the general rule. It is only 
provided that the members of the United States Con- 
gress shall be returned by the same constituency as 
the most popular branch of the Legislature of the 
State returning the members. In practice, however, 
manhood suffrage has come to be the common 
rule, the only exception which I noticed being in 
/ Massachusetts, where there is still an educational 
franchise. No man can vote unless he can read and 
write, and when I was there the Irishmen were being 
' coached up ' to enable them to vote for General 
\ Butler. 

Woman suffrage does not find much favor in 
America ; there is nothing of the kind in any of the 
old settled States, and, so far *as I could gather, any 
agitators for it were even less successful than with 
us. In some of the far- Western Territories, however, 
something of the kind has been tried, and I came 
across an enthusiastic gentleman from the Territory 
of Wyoming, up in the Rocky Mountains, where, it 
seems, all political distinctions between the sexes have 
been abolished, and women are eligible to all public 
offices. He wanted to convert the other States to 
that system, and told of a case in which a husband 
and wife went to the poll against one another as rival 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 63 

candidates without the slightest disturbance of their 
domestic harmony and good feeling. I confess, how- 
ever, that I was not convinced of the advantage of 
the system, nor are the American people. They show 
by their practice that women may have many privi- 
leges, and even usefully practise many professions, 
without seeking political power, or at all events with-' 
out obtaining it. 

You have all heard of the caucus system which 
prevails in America in regard to elections; that is, 
before going to the poll each party decides within 
itself who is to be its candidate. In fact, this system 
seems to have become almost universal. Everywhere 
there are what are called the l primary ' elections — 
i. e., the unofficial elections within the party, before 
the real election — and these primary elections are 
often conducted with at least as much heat and 
bitterness as the real election, sometimes much 
more so. There are various modes of arraiimno^ the 
caucus : sometimes the primary election is in the 
form of a ballot by the voters of the party to elect 
the candidate direct, but generally they elect de- 
legates, who meet in caucus and elect the candi- 
dates; and it is among these caucus delegates that 
jobbery and trickery is said often to j>revail, the more 
as, these elections being unknown to the law, abuses 
cannot be controlled by the law and the Courts. 
People are generally very much alive to the evils of 
their own system, and I certainly heard in America 
more abuse of the caucus system 'than praise of it. 
It was said that the best man was often ousted in 



64 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

the caucus by a system of jobbery and underhand 
management, and that many independent men much 
preferred an appeal to the constituencies direct. I 
confess I was not able in my short visit to get to 
the bottom of the subject or to make up my mind 
about it. 

A general election took place while I was in 
America, and I noticed that in several States there 
were a good many i Independent ' candidates, who set 
at defiance the caucuses and went in against their 
nominees; and they not unfrequently won. This 
was the more practicable, because at present parties 
in America are in a very peculiar position. There 
are, as with us, two parties who have long existed 
under different names, and have for a good many 
years been known as Republicans and Democrats. 
But I failed to identify these two parties with our 
Liberals and Conservatives. At one time they were 
a good deal ranged on the question of Centralisation 
versus State-rights, the Republicans representing what 
we might call the Imperialist party, and the Demo- 
crats the State-rights party; now that question has 
been fought out and settled (as regards the claims 
of the Southern States and the institution of slavery), 
and it has nearly ceased to have practical impor- 
tance. It so happens that on the questions of the 
present day — the Tariff, the Currency, and some 
others — each of the regular parties is divided within 
itself, and it seems inevitable that there must be a 
new deal. It will, I should say, be a very good 
thing if it is so, for in some things the system of 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 65 

party government is carried much further than with 
us, especially as regards appointments to offices which 
we call permanent and treat as such. A custom has 
sprung up in modern times of turning out all the 
officials when there is a change in the Executive 
Government, and putting in the men of the incoming 
party. And to this has been added a horrible sys- 
tem of raising a regular tax by a tariff levied on 
the salaries of all officials, towards defraying the 
election expenses of the party; for I am sorry to say 
that the practice of spending money on elections is 
growing rapidly — following our evil example. The 
subordinate office-holders under this system become 
the principal election agents, and political struggles 
become to a great degree a contest between rival 
factions of placemen and would-be placemen to a 
much greater degree than with us. The greatness of 
this evil is felt and acknowledged. But there is an 
extreme difficulty in getting rid of it when once in- 
troduced, because, one party having put in all their 
own men, it would require superhuman virtue in the 
other party to leave them permanently in possession. 
The thing can only be settled by a compromise, which 
the present President is anxious to effect, and a new 
deal of parties will be the best opportunity for it. 
At present parties in Congress are so evenly balanced 
that it is very difficult to put the placeman question 
out of sight. 

The same division of parties is carried into many of 
the State elections, and into some of the municipal elec- 
tions in the great cities. But I was happy to observe 



66 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

that in other States the divisions are on other questions 
and other lines than the mere struggle between Re- 
publicans and Democrats, and I hope that this is a 
sign that a better state of things may be arrived at. 

I specially remarked two things as giving to 
American legislators a character different from our 
members of Parliament. 

First, they are all paid. This payment chiefly 
affects the members of Congress. They receive a 
handsome salary of 1,000^. per annum each — mem- 
bers of the Senate and Assembly equally — for their 
attendance during a portion of the year ; so that 
each Congressman is a regular salaried placeman. 
The members of the State Legislatures, on the other 
hand, only receive a moderate daily allowance for 
their expenses during the time of their actual attend- 
ance, which in very many States is only once in two 
years ; and they can hardly make much 'by the trans- 
action; so that they are not placemen in the same 
sense, and not so much professional politicians. 

Second, it is a very important practical feature in 
the situation that in most cases American Legislatures 
do not meet, like our Parliament, in a great social 
and commercial capital, where the great and grand 
and rich gather together for other purposes, and 
where fashionable swells and millionaire plutocrats 
are equally ready to add M.P. to their names, in one 
phase of their lives, and to migrate, in another, to a 
higher if not better place in the Upper House. As 
you know, the United States Congress meets, at 
Washington, which is in no sense a commercial city, 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. bi 

and had no social attractions, but was founded as a 
political centre only. Considerable amenities have 
lately been created there, but it can never be a capital 
in the sense of any great European capital, and people 
go their neither for pleasure nor for private business, 
but for political business only. So it is in most of 
the States. The Legislatures meet in rural towns, in 
a central position, not in the commercial capitals — for 
instance, the Legislature of New York at Albany, 
that of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, that of Illinois 
at Springfield, and so on. Boston is the only great 
city that came under my observation in which a 
State Legislature meets. Richmond, in Virginia, has 
now grown into a considerable town, but is scarcely 
a great city ; and in most other States very secondary 
places have been selected. Consequently a man who 
goes to a United States Legislature goes either for 
love of country or for love of place and power, not 
for social privileges ; and when he does go he goes to 
work, not to give to legislation the time he can spare 
from other avocations. 

It is this character and position of the members 
that renders possible the feature which most dis- 
tinguishes the working of the American Legislatures 
from our own, viz., that most of the work is done in 
great committees, which practically amount to the 
House sitting simultaneously in several separate 
divisions at the same time. All the members having 
come in as working men of business, and having 
nothing else to do, are able to devote themselves 
regularly and systematically to work of this kind in 



68 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

a way that would not be possible to many of our 
much -occupied or lightly-occupied members, who can 
only give to legislation occasional parts of evenings, 
or, if they do sit on special committees, attend or stay 
away as they please. 

The work which with us is done by the whole 
House being in America threshed out and settled in 
these committees, is in most cases accepted by the 
House at large without much further discussion. 
This is especially the case in the State Legislatures, 
the majority of which meet, as I have said, only once 
in two years, and the sitting of which is generally 
limited by the Constitution to a moderate period — ■ 
sometimes as little as fifty or sixty days, and generally 
not more than three or four months. Yet it seemed 
to me, looking over the volumes of the legislation of 
each session in several different States., that they get 
through quite as much legislation as our Parliament, 
and my impression of the system is altogether favour- 
able. 

The word ' politician' is used in a bad sense in 
America, as applied to people who make politics a 
profession, and are skilled in the arts of ' wire-pulling ' 
and such practices. In this country you certainly do 
not offend a man, or even a woman, if you say, 4 1 
believe you are a great politician ? ' But if you say 
that in the States, the person you address fires up and 
assures you he is nothing of the kind. I think this 
use of the word is what has given rise to the idea, so 
prevalent in this country, that none of the best men 
in the States will have anything to do with politics, 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 69 

and leave that to inferior persons ; but it seemed to 
me that the fact is not really so. It may be true as 
regards a good many plutocrats in New York and 
elsewhere, who can make more money in the great 
cities than by serving their country in out-of-the-way 
places ; and in New York (only, I think, in that city) 
there is springing up a class who live on realised 
wealth, and whose young men affect the jeunesse 
doree — drive four-in-hands, and so on. But it seemed 
to me that the great majority of the best Americans, 
while disclaiming the character of ' politicians ' in 
the American sense, take quite as much interest in 
politics as Englishmen do. Indeed, so far from the 
mass of educated people abstaining from politics, it is 
proverbial that there is an extraordinary craving for 
office ; that is, principally local office. All offices are 
elective, and elections are continually going on. The 
salaries are not large, but it is generally said that as 
soon as a boy ceases to play at marbles he begins to 
aspire to office. No doubt, for reasons which I have 
already given, a good many men such as would in 
this country accept a seat in Parliament cannot or 
will not go into Congress at Washington ; but many 
other good men of business, such as do not here get 
into Parliament, there get into Congress or into the 
State Legislatures. Lawyers are more numerous and 
prominent in the American Legislatures than with us, 
but the better class of American lawyers are generally 
able and good men ; and there being little of a con- 
centrated bar or legal head-quarters at Washington, 
the provincial lawyers are probably of a higher class 



70 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

than are usually found in our provinces. I am in- 
clined, then, to believe that there is a great amount of 
ability in the United States legislative bodies ; but 
no doubt there is with this ability a great infusion of 
the ' politician ' element and character. Comparing 
the personnel and working system of Congress with 
our Parliament, I should judge in a general way (for 
I had no opportunity of watching the actual working 
of Congress) that there are advantages and disad- 
vantages on either side. The American Congress- 
men are, probably, on the average, more able men. 
Being paid men, bound to work, they do work harder, 
and by their system of committees work more effec- 
tually ; but they are not more honest, and are, on the 
contrary, more open to the imputation of jobbery 
and wire-pulling. I think that the American mode 
of electing the Executive authority and making it 
independent of Congress is inferior to our Ministerial 
system, and the political character of the appointments 
to subordinate civil posts is an evil of a very grave 
character. On the other hand, I am inclined to sup- 
pose that the great principles handed down by the 
founders of the Republic, and embalmed in the Con- 
stitution, have really given a high tone, a continuity 
of purpose, and a national dignity to the political 
system, in whatsoever hands it may be. American 
statesmen steer by permanent sailing directions, as 
it were ; and in this respect their work contrasts 
favourably with our hand-to-mouth haphazard sort of 
want of system. Their successful eiforts to reduce 
their public debt stand in favourable contrast to our 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 71 

puny reductions ; and in regard to such questions as 
the public land, local government, and others which 
could be named, there has been for generations a con- 
tinuity of policy which we may well envy. This it 
is, I think, which preserves the character of American 
society, and prevents the plutocrat of to-day from 
becoming the aristocrat of to-morrow. 

Apart from the general Government of the United 
States, I had a special interest in, and paid particular 
attention to, the State Governments and system of 
local administration, constituting what I may call 
Home Rule in America. I was the more anxious to 
see the character of this Home Rule, because I am 
entirely convinced that the work of the British Par- 
liament is more and more overpassing the working 
power of the machinery ; that things are rapidly 
coming to a serious block, if not a dead-lock, and 
that something must be done. The number of sub- 
jects with which Parliament deals has immensely 
increased, while the working power has not increased, 
but has, on the contrary, considerably decreased, on 
account of Irish questions and other causes. There 
lias long been most undeniable ground of complaint 
that our Scotch business is not done — or, so far as 
done, is done in the small hours of the morning — in a 
way that is scarcely fair. I wanted to know, then, 
if such things are better done in America. While 
what I have said of the general administration of 
the United States compared with ours goes to show 
that after all there is but a balancing of pros and 
cons, on the other hand, as regards this Home Rule 



72 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

I am bound to say that the result of very careful 
inquiry has been to convince me that the Americans 
have a very great advantage over us. It seemed 
to me that the State Legislatures are most useful 
institutions and that, through them, a very large 
amount of work is done, to the great benefit 
and satisfaction of their citizens, very much which 
with us is left undone altogether being there 
got through without hitch or difficulty. The mem- 
bers of these local Legislatures appear to be very 
respectable citizens. They are men sent up from 
among the people of the States, acting before and 
within the cognisance of their own fellow-country- 
men. Their laws are not always and altogether 
of the highest style of jurisprudence, but they 
are practical and useful, and if anything does not 
work well it is easily set right. They have an 
especial advantage in dealing with those local and 
minor matters which we class under the head of 
private bill legislation, and which with us is done 
in a very expensive and somewhat uncertain and 
unsatisfactory way. 

I had an opportunity of seeing and carefully 
noting the proceedings of one of the State Legisla- 
tures — not one of the most important States in the 
Union, but still a large State, and perhaps the best 
of the Southern States — and I was much pleased by 
what I saw. I have already mentioned several of the 
peculiarities of the American Legislatures which are 
common both to Congress and to the State Assem- 
blies, and I understand that in its forms and proce- 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 73 

dure the State Legislature which I saw very much re- 
sembled the Congress, and may be taken as a minor 
edition of it. The origin of the procedure is evidently 
English, but the practice has now much varied from 
ours, not only in the system of committees which I 
have mentioned, but also in the use of the previous 
question, or cloture, and in other ways. They have 
rules regarding the length of speeches and such mat- 
ters which very much abbreviate the proceedings when 
it is the general wish that a decision should be arrived 
at. The members of the Legislature seemed to be very 
sound, good, practical men, the senators being in every 
way equal to the men who might nil such a situation 
in most other countries with which I am acquainted ; 
while the Assembly, containing, besides a good many 
men of a high class, some rather rough farmers and 
such practical men, was apparently very well quali- 
fied to deal with the work before it. All seemed to 
go into their work with a will, and to get through it 
in a rapid, practical manner. Their speeches were 
short and to the point, and there was very little de- 
claiming. As a stranger I was received with very 
great courtesy, and was most obligingly put in the 
way of seeing and understanding what was going on. 
I shall always retain a very pleasant recollection of 
that experience of an American Home Rule Legisla- 
ture in actual operation and doing its ordinary daily 
work. 

You may well imagine what an American State 
Legislature is like if you suppose that here in Scot- 
land, instead of altogether uniting our Legislature 



74 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

with that of Engl and, we had only sent delegates to 
London to deal with matters of Imperial concern, 
and had retained a Scotch Parliament at Edinburgh, 
to make all oar Scotch laws and control a Scotch ad- 
ministration. Scotland is just about the size and 
population of a good American State, say Pennsyl- 
vania oi\ Ohio. I think the Americans have very 
well hit off: about the right size for their States and 
Home Rule Legislatures — they are so large as to be 
free from the imputation of a petty parish-vestry 
kind of character, and at the same time not so large 
as to be unmanageable and incapable of dealing with 
details and local matters. 

I am inclined to suppose that, looking back into 
history, it is really the case that all successful repub- 
lican governments, as in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, 
and the United States, have consisted of small states 
joined together in union, and not of great central- 
ised states. My own impression is that in England 
and France we have attempted to centralise too 
much ; and on that account, if we were to begin 
again, I should probably be much in favour of sepa- 
rate Legislatures for the different parts of the empire. 
It would be much more difficult to institute anything- 
of the kind now. No doubt the country is hardly 
prepared for it. The Irish do not seem at all agreed 
what they want in this respect. I wonder they have 
never proposed to take as their model one of the States 
of the American Union; but if they did, and got 
something of the kind, I am afraid that they would 
fight among themselves. Ireland would have to be 



POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE TOTTED STATES. 75 

divided into at least two States. Instead of another 
Heptarchy, we must probably be content with divid- 
ing Parliament into Grand Committees, or some such 
scheme, when we get an Administration inclined to, 
deal radically with the matter, and not merely to 
nibble at its fringes. If this were done, one grand 
committee might take up Scotch business, another 
North Irish, another South Irish, another "Welsh, and 
two or three more the several departments of English 
and Imperial business. 

All American States are divided into counties, 
the counties being generally numerous and smaller 
than ours — often as many as 100 counties in a State ; 
but there are no representative bodies in the counties; 
they are only judicial and administrative divisions; 
and the chief interest is the periodical elections of the 
judges, magistrates, and county officers. 

Then in New England and other Northern States 
we have the well-known division of the whole coun- 
try into townships, corresponding to French and Ger- 
man communes or Indian village communities ; these 
have been well described by De Tocqueville. It 
must not be supposed, however, that this institution 
is universal in America ; it was wholly wanting in 
the Southern States, where there was only a loose 
sort of English parish system ; and recent efforts of 
Northerners in power in the South to introduce the 
township system there have not been successful. In 
the North the system is still in full vigour, and by all 
accounts answers admirably, both for administrative 
purposes and for the political education of the people. 



76 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

The townships have certain officers with certain func- 
tions, but they do not delegate their powers to town 
councils or any representative body. Every impor- 
tant matter is decided by the citizens at large in pub- 
lic meeting assembled, much as in ancient Greece. 
Besides the popular and pleasant character of the 
institution it supplies a system of rural administra- 
tion on a small scale which is much wanted in this 
country. 

As respects the government of towns and great 
cities things seemed to be in most cases about on a 
par with this country. I have before alluded to the 
great abuses in New York, a municipality of immense 
size, and full of half-settled foreigners, and which is 
not to be taken as a fair specimen of American man- 
agement. On the whole people are probably more 
enterprising and go-ahead in American towns, and 
per contra oftener come to grief ; but in other respects 
I believe the administration is in most cases pretty 
well conducted. Ambitious enterprises and improve- 
ments have in some cases led to very heavy local 
taxation in the towns, from which you would do well 
to take warning. It is dangerous to pile up too much 
upon posterity in order to obtain present improve- 
ments : there are often two sides to these things, and 
they must be well considered. The speculative charac- 
ter of men and things in America and the temptations 
ottered by successful ventures and sudden rises are 
such that defalcations of town treasurers and such- 
like misfortunes are certainly more common than they 
are with us, I am glad to say ; and these scandals 



POSITION OF CANADA. 77 

have tended to give us a bad idea of American hon- 
esty ; though, as I have already said, I do not think 
that in the main there is much more rascality than in 
other countries. Certainly the outward appearance 
of the towns, especially the second-rate country towns, 
gives one the idea of successful management. 

THE POSITION OF CANADA. 

I only passed through a part of Canada, and had. 
no opportunity of studying Canadian institutions on 
the spot ; but I heard a good deal about Canada, not 
only from Canadians whom I met, but also from 
many people in the States, who seem much impressed 
with the well-doing of Canada, and what is called the 
loyalty to the English connection. In truth, I believe 
that this connection really is extremely beneficial to 
the Canadians. There has sprung up among them a 
considerable feeling of, I will not call it jealousy and 
antagonism, but at least of rivalry and emulation, to- 
wards the United States ; and being a smaller people 
in close contact throughout a very long and little- 
separated border with a greater people, with whom 
difficult questions not unfrequently arise (e.g., the 
existing fishery question), they naturally set much 
store on English alliance and support. Moreover, 
their Government does seem to combine to a great de- 
gree the advantages of the American and the English 
systems. The Dominion Union of Canadian States is 
based on an effective Home Rule system very similar 
to that of the United States ; but the Canadians have, 



78 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

I think, an advantage in the adoption of our system 
of ministerial responsibility as compared with the 
American mode of appointing the executive author- 
ities. That, however, has not saved them from some 
financial scandals and abuses, and from a Protective 
system much less excusable than that of the Ameri- 
cans, inasmuch as their own production is much 
narrower and less varied, and by their protective 
system they wound in the tenderest point the Power 
to which they look for support. It is a decided ad- 
vantage to the Canadians that, while absolutely and 
entirely independent so far as their own Legislature and 
Government is concerned, and owning no allegiance 
whatever to the British Parliament, they are saved the 
agitation and difficulties of the American elections for 
President, by the appointment of a British Governor- 
General, always a selected and impartial man, taking 
no part in their politics, but a useful arbitrator and 
mediator in case of difficulty. The Governor-treneral 
is, in fact, a very cheap constitutional king, not subject 
to the accidents of heredity, but always a picked man 
— like a perpetual Leopold of Belgium, for instance. 
Canada, not having participated in the American 
war, is not subject to so heavy a taxation as that 
which the war has brought on the United States ; but 
then the Americans have by that war settled their 
political system, and find themselves on their own 
continent a united people, without an equal or, in 
point of population and power, a rival ; whereas in 
the presence of so much greater a Power the troubles 
of the Canadians may have yet to come. 



TAXATI0X EN THE STATES. 79 

Altogether I am not at all surprised that the 
Canadians are thoroughly loyal to the British con- 
nection — it suits them admirably. But it should be 
understood that they only own loyalty and allegiance 
to the British Crown, not by any means to the British 
Parliament and the British people. We need not 
flatter ourselves that Canada any more belongs to us 
than Hanover did when it was subject to the British 
Crown. My only doubt is, whether the connection 
is beneficial to us. I cannot quite see what we, the 
people and taxpayers of Great Britain, get for the 
political and military responsibilities which it imposes 
on us. I observe that, in opening the Canadian 
Parliament the other day, Lord Lome says, in his 
official speech from the Throne : ' By the readjustment 
of the tariff, with a view to increasing the revenue and 
developing and encouraging the industries of Canada, 
you will, I trust, be able to restore the equilibrium, 
and aid in removing the commercial and financial 
depression? That means that the British Governor- 
General sent from this country, is compelled by his 
position to recommend in so many words, protection 
for protection's sake — a policy which, right or wrong, 
is utterly opposed to the universal and most strong 
feeling of this country. I confess that I think that 
it is somewhat humiliating to us to continue the con- 
nection on these terms. 

TAXATION. 

There is a good deal of disposition among us to 
suppose that the Americans suffer from a very heavy 



80 bied's-eye view of the united states. 

taxation. I hardly think this is so, except in particular 
localities. Of course the burden left by the war was 
enormous — that has disturbed everything, and made it 
necessary for a people formerly about the most lightly 
taxed in the world to submit to considerable taxation 
— the more as that taxation has been imposed, not only 
to pay the interest of the debt, but to pay off the 
capital. But, after all, the general taxation levied by 
the United States is not extremely onerous — not so 
much so as that which we raise, and much less than 
that raised in France and other countries. I have 
already mentioned what it consists of — an excise more 
moderate than our excise and tobacco duties, and a 
customs revenue which is only very burdensome be- 
cause it involves protection, and consequent enhance- 
ment of prices of a good many articles. The exemption 
of tea and coffee from all. duty is a notable concession by 
the Americans to the c free-breakfast-table ' view of life. 
No doubt the United States' taxation excludes 
provision for the local courts of justice and some 
other things which are provided by the States' 
Governments ; but the cost of those Governments 
(other than that incurred for railways and canals) 
is not large; on the contrary, they are very economi- 
cally administered ; and the State tax is generally not 
heavy, except in some of the Southern States. A good 
many charges are thrown on the counties, as is the 
case with us. But the county rates are also as a rule 
not very heavy. Nor are those of rural townships 
and villages or small towns excessive. It is only, I 
think, in some of the large cities, such as New York 



TAXATION IN THE STATES. 81 

and Chicago, that the rate is very heavy, amounting 
sometimes to as much as 2£ to 3 per cent, on capital 
value, all charges — State, county, and city — included ; 
in fact, to six or eight shillings in the pound of the 
rental — a rate which naturally very much enhances 
the cost of living and doing business in those cities. 
On the other hand, we must remember that in some of 
our towns all our rates added together come to a good 
many shillings in the pound : and if to these be added 
a large part of our Excise, stamp revenue, Imperial 
income-tax and house-tax, and other items not paid 
in America, it may be doubted whether, even in the 
cities, an American contributes more, in proportion to 
his means, to the public administration of one kind 
and another than an Englishman does ; while it may 
be affirmed that out of those cities he contributes less. 
But, in addition to the prominence given to the 
taxation of some of the large cities of which foreigners 
see most, what, I think, makes Americans cry out and 
foreigners think them oppressed by taxation is, that 
almost all taxation of all kinds below that of the 
United States is in the form of a direct tax on prop- 
erty. Thus the Americans have less indirect taxa- 
tion and as much, or perhaps more, direct taxation 
on the whole than we have ; and as direct taxation 
is always more felt, their burdens are more evident 
and conspicuous, and have been especially felt at a 
time when property has been universally depreciated, 
both by the after-effects of the war and by the com- 
mercial depression, while taxation has been increased 
to meet debts and pay for great works undertaken in 
6 



82 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

prosperous times. In the Southern States particularly, 
property has been very greatly depreciated, for the 
slaves were in themselves an immensely valuable pro- 
perty, and the land, though as well cultivated as be- 
fore, does not yet sell for high prices. There the 
taxation is often much complained of, and State 
debts are in a good many cases not met. 

By the constitutions of almost all the States all 
taxation must be imposed on all property equally, 
and consequently the direct taxation, State, county, 
and local, all takes the single form of a tax on 
property, both real and personal. There is, as a rule, 
no tax on incomes as distinguished from property; 
the capital value of the property must be returned, 
and then the taxes are a percentage on that. A war 
income-tax was at one time imposed by the United 
States, but that has been given up, and there is now 
no such tax, except in some of the Southern States 
which are in financial difficulties. 

There is no doubt that all real property is effec- 
tively taxed, but the question is how far personal 
property. is fully reached. I gather that the assess- 
ment is carried out with very various degrees of 
thoroughness. I was not able to go into the mat- 
ter exhaustively, but I understood that there is more 
or less evasion. Considering the enormous realised 
wealth of New York, the proportion of personal 
property returned in that State seems surprisingly 
small — much less than in either Massachusetts or 
Ohio. But the morality of New York City is, no 
doubt, below the average of America, and the ad- 
ministration there has been corrupt and lax. 



TAXATION IN THE STATES. « 83 

While we, I think, go to one extreme in taxing the 
most precarious professional incomes at the same rate 
as incomes derived from realised property, the Ameri- 
cans seem to go to the other extreme, in exempting 
altogether incomes derived otherwise than from prop- 
erty. For instance lawyers and other professional 
men are not taxed on their receipts. 

Then there is, in most States, a poll-tax for edu- 
cation, to which I have before adverted ; it ranges 
from one to two dollars per head on ablebodied males, 
but is strictly confined by the Constitution to special 
purposes — generally altogether to education. A tax 
generally the resort of tyrannical governments is thus 
given a popular character. A burning question in 
America is the imposition of a dog-tax. It is alleged 
that sheep and other animals suffer terribly from the 
depredations of dogs ; but the tax being obnoxious to 
much popular objection, it is provided that where it 
is imposed for preventive purposes it also is to go for 
education. 

I think there is nothing in the Constitution to 
prevent the imposition of local taxes of an indirect 
character for State purposes, except that nothing may 
be done which involves anything of the character of a 
transit duty or interferes with trade and commerce ; 
but generally speaking nothing of the kind is at- 
tempted. In some States — as, for instance, Virginia — 
a State tax on the sale of intoxicating liquors has been 
imposed in addition to the United States Excise tax. 
But such revenues are, I think, quite exceptional. 



84 bikdVeye view of the united states. 



THE LAND SYSTEM. 

I omitted to mention one very important subject 
which is reserved for the Central Government, viz., 
the disposal of the unoccupied lands. The original 
States of the Union had and retained the disposal of 
their own lands ; and the great new State of Texas, 
on coming into the Union, made a bargain that it 
should retain a similar power ; but with this excep- 
tion all the vast lands west of the Alleghanies, and 
out of which so many great new States and Territories 
have been formed, were considered to belong to the 
people of the United States as a whole, and are by 
them offered, not only to their own citizens, but to 
all foreigners who are willing to come and settle 
among them. It is under the system adopted by the 
central authority that wise rules have been passed 
and precautions taken to which I have already alluded, 
and under which land-jobbing and the monopoly of 
great areas is prevented. Great populations of free 
and independent small farmers owning their own 
land have been thus attracted to the soil of America. 
Only in exceptional cases and for special reasons is 
any public land sold in an unrestricted manner. It 
is reserved for bond fide settlers. Every citizen and 
every man willing to become a citizen of the United 
States is, under the homestead law, entitled to a free 
grant of 80 or 160 acres, according to the situation, 
provided he settles upon it and fulfils conditions 
ensuring that it is taken up for real cultivation, and 
not for speculation and sale. Or, again, he may buy 



THE LAND SYSTEM. 85 

a similar plot or a larger one up to 320 acres at five or 
ten shillings per acre (according to situation), under 
less restrictive conditions, but still subject to precau- 
tions against land-jobbing. Where peculiar circum- 
stances exist — as, for instance, where large irriga- 
tion works are necessary to profitable cultivation — 
the land is sold in large blocks. And there has been 
a good deal of outcry of late regarding what is sup- 
posed to be a departure from the principle of the 
American land system in the grant of great quanti- 
ties of land to railway companies. Though there 
may have been a good deal of jobbing in particular 
instances, I doubt whether the general complaint is 
very well-founded. I have alluded to the want of 
roads in America. In the deep black soil of the 
Western Prairie States roads are not only absent but 
most difficult and expensive to make. Railways are 
the very life of the country. Vast new tracts have 
been and are being opened up by railways which 
otherwise could not have been approached, and value- 
less land is made valuable by railways, that close to 
the line being, of course, infinitely more valuable than 
that away from it. Hence, the value being created 
by the railways, I think it was far from an unwise 
system to pay for the construction of railways into 
unoccupied countries, where no one would otherwise 
make them, out of the value thus created. The sys- 
tem adopted was to grant to those who made the rail- 
ways every alternate square mile block along the 
line, the other alternate blocks being reserved for sale 
at an enhanced rate, or for homestead grants of smaller 



86 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

area than elsewhere. Certainly the opening ont of 
the country has been thus secured, and I don't gather 
that a very large amount of land- jobbing has resulted ; 
for, the custom of the country being favourable to real 
settlement and small farms, the railways have gene- 
rally laid out their lands with that object, and dis- 
posed of them to bond fide farmers in lots of 40,80, 
160, or 320 acres. I saw a good deal of the country 
thus occupied along the Illinois Central Railway, the 
best known case in which the system of railway 
grants was adopted, and certainly the result has there 
been a very excellent settlement of such farmers on 
farms suited to their means. It is only in some of 
the outlying tracts in the Far West that a few great 
estates have been got together and that one hears of 
farms on a magnificent scale ; but I gather that they 
are rather made to sell than anything else, and that 
the magnificent descriptions of them which have been 
circulated are of the nature of advertisements, with a 
view to their disposal in moderate lots. In Texas 
and some of the Far Western States land not suited 
for agriculture is, I believe, held in large grazing 
farms. In California the land was claimed in large 
blocks under old Spanish titles, which the United 
States Courts have declared to be valid, and by pur- 
chase of these titles large estates have been acquired, 
so that the tenure of land and structure of society 
is different there from other parts of the United 
States. 

The system of survey and registration of all the 
lands settled under the system which I have described 



THE LAND SYSTEM. "87 

is admirable. The whole country is accurately sur- 
veyed and lotted off into square mile sections of 640 
acres, with rectangular road-spaces dividing them. 
These are again divided into quarter sections of 160 
acres, and these again, as occasion requires, into 80 
and 40 acre sections ; so that every 40-acre plot can 
be accurately stated and traced by the use of a very' 
few figures in the simplest possible manner. 

After a few years' bond fide settlement and cultiva- 
tion all land is freely transferable, so that there is not 
the least practical difficulty in acquiring large farms, 
or even large estates, if, for purposes of large and 
high cultivation or systematic management, anyone 
wishes to acquire such by fair purchase, and not by 
mere land-jobbing and forestalling. In the older 
States plenty of large tracts are, in fact, in the 
market; so that it is not for want of opportunity if 
the large culture system is not often followed. 

The system of direct taxation which prevails in 
the United States is, on the other hand, very effectual 
to prevent large quantities of land being kept waste 
for jobbing or speculative purposes, since all private 
property of this kind is taxed, whether it is cultivated 
or not. 

Thus the land system of the United States is in 
great contrast to that of most of our colonies, where 
not only are great quantities of land monopolised by 
squatters and jobbers, but such tracts have been held 
almost exempt from taxation. In Australia these 
land questions seem to be very prominent ; but mean- 
time it appears that there the public land is being 



88 bird's-eye view oe the united states. 

very rapidly sold away and the proceeds spent as 
revenue. 

In the United States not only is the public land 
reserved and local jobbing and improvident sale pre- 
vented, but, although free self-governing institutions 
within certain limits are given to the settlers in new 
territory, they by no means at once obtain the com- 
plete self-government which our colonies now usually 
have. As soon as there is a moderate population what 
are called Territories are formed. But these Terri- 
tories are under governors appointed by the President, 
the laws passed by their Legislatures are subject to 
the approval of Congress, and they are, as it were, 
kept in leading-strings till they arrive at a tolerable 
maturity, when they are converted into States, and 
admitted into the Union as such. 

Besides the public lands, the central Government 
reserves the function of dealing with the Indians, the 
old possessors or roamers over these lands; and con- 
siderable tracts (in one quarter what amounts to the 
area of a State, comprising, it is said, as good land as 
any in the Union) have been reserved for them. 
In Canada I believe that some of the tame Indians 
have been turned into tolerable farmers, and the wild 
ones keep up amicable relations with the Government. 
Tame squaws knit stockings about the Niagara Falls. 
In the States one sees very little of tame Indians. 
A number of young Indians from the West are being 
trained in a college in Virginia, who are to be sent 
back to carry civilisation to their tribes ; but mean- 
while these Western tribes are extremely trouble- 



THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 89 

some. Though unwilling to settle down to work, they 
are far from deficient in energy, and show very 
decided talent in the use of firearms ; in fact, I be- 
lieve they are the best marksmen in America. They 
give an immense amount of very harassing occupation 
to the United States troops. Many people in Amer- 
ica say they have been very ill-used, and I believe 
that is so — not by the Government, but by people 
whom the Government cannot restrain ; and so they 
are driven into rebellion. At any rate, the moral is 
to show how troublesome a few savages can be when 
they learn the use of good firearms. The conditions 
of the savage world are already very much changed 
from what they were but a few years ago, and are 
rapidly changing still more now that free trade in- 
troduces cheap firearms everywhere. We must take 
full account of this in dealing with barbarian popu- 
lations. 

THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 

The Currency question is so burning and impor- 
tant in the United States, and of so much interest on 
this side of the Atlantic, that I will attempt to ex- 
plain briefly how it stands. 

The dollar — on which the United States monetary 
system is based — was originally a silver coin, the 
currency having been founded on the Mexican silver 
dollar. But almost ever since the E evolution the 
American system seems to have been in strictness 
bimetallic ; that is, both silver and gold were coined 
in any quantity for all persons who brought these 



90 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

metals to the Mint, and both silver and gold coins 
were equally a legal tender. The debtor had the op- 
tion of paying either in silver or in gold ; and, as is 
necessarily the case under sucli a rule, lie of course 
always paid in the coin which happened to be cheap- 
est at the time. The silver dollar of this coinage is 
the l dollar of our daddies,' weighing 41 2 J grains troy, 
of which one-tenth is alloy ; and that is still the 
American silver dollar. Bat I gathered that in times 
before the war the Mexican dollar was more current 
than any coin of the United States. 

That, then, was the state of things up to 1862, 
the debtor having the option of paying in silver or in 
gold, and on that basis all contracts were made and 
loans contracted. In 1862, in consequence of the 
war, a very important change took place — the legal 
coins remained the same as before in theory, but in 
that and the following years very large quantities of 
inconvertible paper notes were issued and made legal 
tender equally with coin ' in payment of ail debts, 
public or private, except duties on imports and 
interest on the public debt. 7 These were the famous 
greenbacks. Legally debtors could then pay either 
in silver, gold, or greenbacks ; but, as greenbacks 
were speedily depreciated, and became cheaper to the 
debtor, all payments (save those excepted^) were 
made in greenbacks. Practically coin was not seen 
again in the United States till January 1 of the pre- 
sent year (1879), excepting only a small currency 
reintroduced of late years for small payments only. 
There was no term for payment of the greenbacks in 



THE CUEEENCY QUESTION. 91 

coin ; but the constitutional legality of the Greenback 
Act having been disputed in the Courts, the Supreme 
Court decided that it was legal only under the neces- 
sity of war, and it seemed to result that the notes 
must be repaid as soon as the necessities caused by 
the war permitted. To make this clear an Act of 
March 1869 declares that ' the faith of the United 
States is solemnly pledged to the payment in coin or 
its equivalent of all the United States notes,' and c to 
make provision at the earliest practicable period for 
the redemption of the notes in " coin." : No more 
exact time was specified. Thus, then, the holders 
were solemnly promised payment as soon as possible 
in ' coin ; ' that is, either silver or gold. 

Meantime the interest of the interest-bearing debt 
had remained payable in coin of one or the other 
description. But the gold discoveries had rendered 
gold the cheaper metal, and the consequence was that 
everything payable in coin was as a rule paid in gold. 

This was the state of things when a new coinage 
Act was passed in 1873. Silver was not demone- 
tised : — the existing dollars still remained a legal 
tender ; but the new Act (looking, no doubt, to the 
prevalent use of gold, so far as any coin was used) 
dropped the silver dollar out of the new coinage, re- 
taining only smaller silver pieces, the legal payment 
of which was limited to a small amount. As, in 
truth, for most of the ordinary business and transac- 
tions of life, no coin at all was then used in the United 
States, little visible effect was produced by the new 
Act. But as very few silver dollars were in existence, 



92 bikd's-eye view of the united states. 

and no new ones were to be coined, the eiTect certainly 
was that, in case of resumption of specie payments, 
gold, and not silver, must be the coin used. The Act 
of 1873 seems to have been put into the form in which 
it was ultimately passed at the last moment, and, 
under the circumstances of the time, was not of the 
highest interest, nor did it create any excitement. 

Two years later (in 1875) the Act for the resump- 
tion of specie payments was passed, providing that 
the United States notes should be redeemed on Jan- 
uary 1, 1879, in coin — nothing was said of the de- 
scription of coin. 

But about this time a great change began to take 
place in the relative value of gold and silver. Gold 
relatively went up in value and silver went down, as 
we all know. Then it was seen what a disturbance -of 
existing arrangements would be caused by the Act of 
1873. An agitation on the subject soon commenced, 
and prolonged and excited discussions took place. 
It was not till February 1878 that the Act to restore 
the old silver dollar to the coinage received the 
President's assent. Even then it was restored in 
principle rather than in immediate practice. It was 
feared that if an unlimited coinage of silver dollars 
were at once permitted the holders of silver would 
establish monopoly prices and get all the profits, and 
therefore it was determined to brin^ in the silver dol- 
lar gradually. The Treasury were to purchase not 
less than 2,000,000 nor more than 4,000,000 dollars' 
worth of silver monthly, and to coin it for cir- 
culation. The Act also provided that, while silver 



THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 98 

dollars should be a legal tender, an exception should 
be made ' where otherwise expressly stipulated in 
the contract.' 

A great outcry was made against this Act by the 
moneyed interests in the Northern cities and in Eng- 
land, on the ground that it deprived them of the dear 
gold coins which they expected to receive, and put them 
off with cheap silver coins. I must say that for the 
most part I cannot see that this reclamation was well- 
founded. It seems to me that none of the holders or 
creditors whose bonds date prior to the Act of 1873 
can complain, for they certainly get exactly what they 
bargained for — viz., coin, either gold or silver — and 
this includes the whole of the public obligations of 
the United States. The only people who might seem 
to have a fair case are those who made contracts or 
lent money between 1873 and February 1878; but 
morally even they do not seem to have much case of 
hardship — they dealt in or lent greenbacks, which in 
1875 were at a discount of 12 to 15 per cent., but 
which the act of that year prospectively restored to 
coin value. In 1876 the value of the greenback was 
rising very slowly, and throughout that and the follow- 
ing year while the Act for restoring the silver dollar 
was under discussion, it was evident enough that it 
would be restored, the particular form of the measure 
only being doubtful ; so that there was no surprise. 

Moreover, there has for the present come to the 
aid of the creditors the provision limiting the coinage 
of silver. The President and his advisers are unfa- 
vourable to the silver coinage, and I believe they 



94 bied's-eye view of the united states. 

have coined as little as the law allows them ; conse- 
quently up to this time there is so little silver in cir- 
culation that it cannot take the place of gold. Re- 
sumption has been in practice effected in dear gold ; 
and the greenback of the past seventeen years has 
now become worth its nominal value in gold. 

Practically, then, the United States are at present 
in the same position as the States of the Latin Union, 
France and the rest; that is to say, although gold 
and silver coins are both legal tender, the quantity 
of silver coined is so restricted that gold is the real 
measure of value, and silver coin, so far as it cir- 
culates (and we know that it circulates largely in 
France), bears an artificial value far above its real 
intrinsic value. But there is this important differ- 
ence, that whereas the Latin Union fix a total limit 
to their silver coinage, the United States have only 
fixed the amount to be coined monthly. If the 
present law stands, silver coin must go on accumulat- 
ing, and in the end it must inevitably bring down 
the value of the dollar of account, cheap silver dol- 
lars displacing dear gold dollars. Under the existing 
law this is a mere question of time. 

To realise the importance of this question we 
must remember that it is not only a question of the 
currency, or of the payment of the public debts and 
obligations, but of all private debts and obligations. 
Every man who borrowed a dollar in 1864 must now 
pay back a dollar two an ■ a half times more valuable. 
Every man who borrowed a dollar in 1868 (after the 
war was well past and over) must pay back nearly one 



THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 95 

and a half times ; every man who borrowed in 1875 or 
1876 must pay 10 to 15 per cent, more; every man 
who borrowed in 1877 must pay 2 to 6 per cent. more. 
No doubt this is a heavy tax on debtors, and a great 
increase in the value the creditors can claim. There 
are so many debtors in the States that it is no wonder 
there is a strong feeling on the subject, the more so 
as the debtors are the mass of rural proprietors and 
others throughout the country, while the creditors are 
the capitalists in the large towns and in England. 

It is most unfortunate that the Act of 1873 was 
ever passed. If it had not been for that there could 
have been no ground of complaint, and the debtors 
would have bad the benefit of the cheap silver to which 
the law under which they incurred the debts entitled 
them. Then, again, if at the time of the passing of the 
Resumption Act of 1875 provision had at the same 
time been made for coining the silver dollar, no one 
could have reasonably complained. The greenback 
being then at about 15 per cent, discount, it could be 
no hardship to make it payable in silver coin, accord- 
ing to the original contract, for even that would have 
enhanced its existing value. There would thus have 
been a happy and easy transition from greenbacks to 
silver worth a little, but not very much more, than the 
greenbacks of 1875, without disturbance or difficulty. 
As it is the creditors claim their pound of gold under 
the Act of 18 73, and denounce the Act of 1878, 
which only returns to the state of things prior to 
1873, as spoliation. 

It was the real hardship to debtors of a return 



96 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

to a gold standard, excluding the old silver option, 
which produced the recent unreasonable and unsuc- 
cessful agitation for a return to greenbacks; but it 
curiously shows how much the question is one be- 
tween the farmers and people on one side, and the 
capitalists on the other, that the strength of the agi- 
tation was not so much in the indebted and depressed 
South as in the rich State of Massachusetts and the 
steady agricultural State of Maine, both model New 
England States. 

The return to silver money would be the less a 
hardship on creditors, as the authorised standard in 
America puts gold to silver at about 16 to 1, instead 
of 15^ to 1, the European standard; consequently 
the present cheapening of silver is a smaller departure 
from the old standard by upwards of 3 per cent. 

I may mention that one is apt to be puzzled by 
the existence of another authorised dollar coined in 
the U.S. mints, called the ' trade dollar.' It is larger 
than the standard dollar, weighing 420 grains, and 
is not a legal tender, being coined for use in China 
and Japan, where it was supposed that a dollar of 
that kind would be preferred. I believe it is not 
very successful. The present state of things has 
brought about this curious result, that the larger 
trade dollar, not being a legal tender, is not worth a 
dollar in America, while the smaller standard dollar, 
enhanced in value by its scarcity, passes for the value 
of a dollar in gold. That is quite an artificial state 
of things, and can hardly last. 



EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 97 



AMERICA AS A FIELD FOR EMIGRATION AND INVEST- 
MENT. 

It may be of interest to some of you that I should 
tell you something of what I have gathered on the 
subject of emigration to America. I should be sorry 
to see you go, of course, but at the same time there is 
this to be said in favour of America, that to any man 
who goes there, and especially to a Scotchman or 
an Irishman, that country is not in any degree a 
foreign country. There are some peculiarities, but 
they are all on the surface, and you would soon get 
over them. It is wonderful how soon one adapts 
oneself to local customs and habits when the people 
and language are really identical with those of our 
own country. The manners of the Americans are 
our manners, their ways are our ways, and their hearts 
and sympathies are the hearts and sympathies to which 
we are accustomed. 

When we come to consider the question whether 
it is a good thing to emigrate to America, I would 
say, as a general rule, it is a country only for those 
who are willing to work with their hands, and work 
very hard indeed. It is not the place for a man who 
looks to earn his bread by his brains only, and with a 
moderate amount of work. No doubt if a man is ex- 
traordinarily clever he may get on in any part of the 
world ; and if such a one is well fitted to get on in 
this country, he may not improbably also get on in 
America, if he begins early. In America there is 



98 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

much greater room for extension than here; but as a 
rule the people who earn their bread by their brains, 
instead of their hands, are not so well paid, and 
therefore average people of that class I would recom- 
mend not to go to America. I have been surprised 
at the low salaries paid there, and at the extent of the 
head-work done at a low rate of remuneration, al- 
though no doubt some people make large fortunes. If 
a man is not ready to work hard with his hands, if he 
hopes to earn his bread by his education and by head- 
work, I think, on the whole, unless he is very smart 
indeed, he had better stay at home or go to some of 
our colonies, and not try to rival the Americans, where 
the educated class are very keen and smart. After 
all if a man has moderate ideas and does not look to 
be a millionaire, some of the educated professions 
seem to be not yet over-stocked in this country — for 
instance, medical men are hardly procurable for Her 
Majesty's service — and there are many employments 
of various kinds throughout Her Majesty's dominions. 
To the man of the well-to-do classes with a few 
thousand pounds I would say that the land and the 
products would be somewhat strange to him, going 
from this country, and therefore, unless he lays out 
his money very judiciously, he might gain his ex- 
perience by losing it, the result, in a good many cases, 
of young men going out with money. If a man has 
money he should take care to look about him before 
he invests in America. There is a view taken by 
some of my acquaintances that a fine young man, 
Ayho does not care for indoor work, might farm in 



EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 99 

America, and might thus make sure of an indepen- 
dent position. Now, in this respect there is a great 
deal of delusion. I do not think America is the place 
for every man who wishes to be a gentleman-farmer; 
the majority of that kind of whom I have heard have 
been unsuccessful. Land is cheap, but it cannot be 
used till houses have been built on it, fences erected, 
and the land itself improved in a great many ways ; 
and there is this fact, that labour is so dear that large 
farms, as a rule, do not pay. There are some large 
cattle farms which have paid, but these are the ex- 
ceptions, and have been of a speculative character. 
The only farms which surely pay are small farms 
worked by men who are willing to work with their 
own hands, and really to work hard. To men of 
that class I believe there is no country better than 
America, in which they may acquire an independent 
position, such as they would not have in this country, 
at a small cost, and with a small capital. Comparing, 
however, the condition of farmers in this country and 
in America, I must give it as my opinion that the 
average man who cultivates here 500 or 1,000 acres 
had better stay at home, or go somewhere else than to 
America. No doubt there is much room for improved 
farming in America ; at least many very competent 
Americans think so ; and a very energetic man who 
takes a lead in that way may make it succeed ; but 
he will be a sort of pioneer — he will not find things 
cut out to his hand. A man who takes to farming in 
America will not have the same comforts and society 
and civilised distractions that he has here. The dis- 



100 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

tances are great, country neighbours few and rough, 
and servants scarce and dear. I have heard of many 
instances of ex-officers of the army and others who 
have taken to farming in America who, and still more 
whose wives, have had to go through hardships and 
hard work which they little thought of in their own 
country. On the other hand, some very pushing and 
energetic men have no doubt been successful as cattle- 
breeders and, in some of the far-away States, as wdieat- 
farmers on a large scale. In the wheat-growing tracts 
of the Red River of the North (in the far North- 
West of the States) and in the valleys of California, 
where great tracts of very rich and unincumbered 
prairie land have been obtained from railway compa- 
nies, Spanish grantees, and otherwise, the system is 
to lay in a great stock of machinery and keep a few 
men to take care of it ; then at sowing-time, and again 
at harvest-time, to hire great gangs of casual labourers, 
lumber-men out of work and others, to plough and 
sow in spring, and reap in summer, in great fields miles 
long. This is, however, a style of farming which is 
quite exceptional, and will not, I think, last very long. 
On the other hand, I would advise the small 
farmer with a little means — to whom I especially rec- 
ommend America — not to be too much led away by 
the prospect of getting a homestead grant for nothing 
in the farther parts of the country. I doubt whether 
such allotments can be taken up with advantage by 
men new to the country and climate, such as our 
countrymen of the class I describe. Successful set- 
tlements are, I believe, made by Scandinavians and 



EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 101 

Germans, who are accustomed to a sort of communal 
arrangements and to a very rough life ; but a man 
who goes from this country, and who wishes to begin 
at once as an independent farmer, would, I think, do 
better to buy a ready-made farm. He may probably 
get a good one, with house and everything to his hand, 
at from 21. to 51. per acre. The most common size is 
40, 80, or 160 acres, and he may enlarge that after- 
wards, if he is prosperous. If he has sons he may 
work a tolerable sized farm with his own family; if 
not, he may hire one or two farm labourers, and that 
class are readily enough procured, and do not receive 
very monstrous wages. 

Even the small farmer must not be too sanguine 
of a very brilliant success. The fact is that agricul- 
ture is now so largely spread and production is so en- 
ormous that, happily for the dwellers in older lands, 
food-stuffs are exceedingly cheap ; and, unless a farm- 
er has a special success in breeding or otherwise, he 
must be content to make a living by the sweat of his 
brow. But at any rate he will have a rough plenty — 
he need not want for a tolerable house and good food. 
He may well be an independent and self-respecting 
man. His children will be easily provided for, and he 
may enlarge his holding gradually. To a man not 
too ambitious and not in too great a hurry to be rich 
I believe that the life of a respectable farmer, owning 
his own land, in a country where he need call no man 
his superior, is happy, useful, and creditable. 

Now I come to the case of the labouring man 
willing to work hard for a good living. Any man ac- 



102 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

customed to farm labour, or willing and able to take 
to that kind of work, can be sure of such a living in 
America. I have said that in these times labourers 
do not receive very extravagant wages, as at one time 
they did; but still they can earn higher wages than 
they do here, while food is cheaper, and a labouring 
man has better food. I have no doubt that on the 
whole such a man is immediately better off than he 
is at home ; and if he is prudent and saving he has 
certainly much better opportunities to rise. He may 
well hope to become an independent farmer after a 
time — a position to which, I fear, fewer and fewer 
farm-labourers rise in this country. The labourer, 
however, must, like the farmer, be prepared, if need 
be, to-go far afield, and must not grumble if he finds 
himself obliged to rough it a good deal for a time. 
He may have a good deal to learn, and experience 
some change in climate and habits. He muse not ex- 
pect to carry into remote ]3arts all the -ways to which 
he may have been accustomed. 

As regards the class of mechanics and others not 
willing to work on the land — artisans, navvies, miners, 
iron-workers, mill-workers, &c. — they are generally 
better off in America than in this country; but, owing 
to the depression of recent years, their position there 
is not so assured as that of those who are willing 
to labour on the land. During the bad times many 
American works have been stopped, and many good 
men, as well as a very great many indifferent and 
bad men, have been thrown out of employment and 
suffered much hardship. A good many of them have 



EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 103 

given up their trades and taken to work on the land ; 
and business being now a little better, there is by no 
means so conspicuous a want of employment as there 
was. But still I could not advise people of- the 
classes to which I refer to go to America at present,' 
unless employment has been assured to them. I may 
say, while I am on this subject, that the successful 
artisan in America has, I think, much greater facili- 
ties for owning a nice home and garden of his own 
than in this country. 

There is one class of people who are in great de- 
mand in America, viz., domestic servants. I do not 
mean . male servants — I think domestic service is not 
the work for men — we require all .the thew and sinew 
of the nation for other work. But there is no doubt 
that America is a paradise for female servants. They 
are treated there as helps rather than servants ; and 
though it is necessary for them to work hard, still 
their employment is certain, and a really good servant 
may almost make her own terms. 

I have said that in recent years times have been 
somewhat hard in America, but I think there is a 
degree of exaggeration in that, because, though wages 
have been reduced, yet, on the other hand, the absolute 
necessaries of life are so much cheaper than they were 
as almost to make up for the difference. The ordinary 
labouring man, who in this country might earn 2s. 6d. 
or 3 s. a day, would in America earn a dollar ; a me- 
chanic who gets from 5s. to 6s. a day here would, if 
he succeeded in getting employment, earn consider- 
ably more, 



104 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

I am afraid, however, that much of the advantage 
is lost owing* to the extravagant habits of the Amer- 
icans in regard to spending. The obligatory expenses, 
or even those necessary to the ease and comfort of a 
working man, are not so heavy as in this country ; 
but there is no doubt that all classes, high and low, 
have been to some degree spoiled by former prosper- 
ous times, and that they have not learned saving as 
they ought. Many think that recent hard times will 
have a very good effect on the habits of the American 
people, and in this I speak of the richer and more 
pretentious classes still more than of labouring men. 
On the other hand, many of the Germans and some 
other classes exhibit wonderful thrift, and are a model 
of careful and successful industry, by which they 
improve their position much more than some who 
may earn more and seem of a higher class. 

It must be felt that the absence in America of 
that wide social gulf between classes which so much 
exists in England is a great advantage to a working 
man who by skill and prudence rises to an indepen- 
dent position ; and the political system is certainly 
one which makes him feel that he has a better and 
more recognised place in the commonwealth. We 
cannot, too, shut our eyes to the fact that this is a 
risen country, where there is not apparent room for 
so much further rise as there is in America, with its 
illimitable opportunities for expansion; and in this 
respect the man who seeks to rise lias probably more 
to look to on the other side of the Atlantic. 

At the same time I cannot too often impress on 



EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 105 

you that, while America is the place for the . man 
with a strong arm and a strong will to work — for the 
pushing and the energetic — it is most decidedly no 
place for the idle or the easy-going, or for men dis- 
contented with their lot, who think that a mere 
change of country will better it. There are too 
many of that sort in America already. This is the 
class which has suffered most from the want of em- 
ployment, and it is a class to which Americans are 
not inclined to be very tender. Any man who is not 
thoroughly self-reliant had better stay in the older 
and perhaps more indulgent country. 

There is this important consideration with respect 
to emigration, that many a man who hardly thinks 
that his own lot is improved by transplantation, and 
who sets against the advantages much that comes 
rather trying in the change, must feel that his chil- 
dren at least, growing up in America, will greatly 
benefit by the step which he has taken. To begin 
with, to the parents of large families the American 
educational system is a very great advantage. In all 
the best parts of America there is offered to all an 
excellent education, absolutely free, given to all chil- 
dren without distinction ; and the clever boy may not 
only thus learn the ' three R's,' but may go to the 
higher education, also given free, and qualify for 
higher work and a higher place than his father ever 
aimed at. If the son of a poor man is very ambitious 
he has certainly a better chance of being President 
of the United States than of being Prime Minister of 
England. And without looking; so hi^h as that, I 



106 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

think there can be no doubt that not only the son of 
the energetic Scotchman and the prudent German, but 
also the son of the poor Irishman, brought up as an 
American citizen, has better prospects than in his 
own country. I won't say that this country has cul- 
minated and begun to go down — we have not, I hoj>e, 
come to that — but there is no doubt that, with very 
limited land and immense foreign competition in 
manufactures, we can hardly hope to hold a place 
relatively so far in advance of the world as we have 
in the past generations. We shall, I hope, still pro- 
gress in many ways, but it is almost in the nature of 
things that America must progress faster. 

I will sum up my views in regard to emigration 
to America as follows — taking the case of the aver- 
age man, not the exceptional man. 

If I were a young man with a moderate patrimony 
I would go and look about me in America, but would 
not invest my fortune there rashly ; it would be 
principally a question of temperament, and a choice 
between the safety and ease which such a man may 
have in his own country, or the adventure and the 
chance of making his mark which he may have in 
America. 

If I were a well-educated farm labourer, with a 
large family, I would certainly go. If I were an un- 
incumbered young farm-labourer or a young maid- 
servant without special ties in this country, I would 
go. If I were a young mechanic or mill-worker I think 
I should take the first favourable opportunity of go-' 
ing, and would take my chance for better or worse. 



EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 107 

A man of any other class I would not advise to 
go, unless lie feels a very special vocation for the 
adventure of American life. Clerks, professional 
men, shopkeepers, elderly mechanics and others of 
the working classes without a special engagement in 
America, may generally with greater advantage stay 
at home. 

All that I have hitherto said has principally had 
reference to emigration, and to the investment of 
capital taken out by those who themselves emigrate ; 
but perhaps I may say one word regarding the in- 
vestment of capital in America by people who do 
not emigrate, though that is a very difficult subject, 
and I should be sorry to give confident advice about 
it. No doubt the demand for money is greater in 
America than it is here, and the interest is higher; 
but on equal security the difference is not now very 
great. The United States Government can borrow 
at 4 per cent, as easily as we can at 3 \ — the security 
of that Government is, no doubt, as safe as any in 
the world. The New York money market is now a 
very large one, and investors there are glad to get 
moderate interest for safe investments. I think not 
fully 5 per cent, is to be got on first-class railway 
bonds and such-like securities, which give about 4 
per cent, in this country. The difference between 4 
and 4f may about express the degree to which in- 
terest is higher in America. All the second mort- 
gages, shares, &c, which bear higher interest, are 
more or less risky. It is true one is told that 
first-class mortgages on land are to be had at a 



108 bird's-eye view of the united states. 

high rate of interest, but there is a good deal of diffi- 
culty about this — estates are not large, the titles are 
not always unconditional — most States reserve rights 
of wives, without whose consent the homestead can- 
not be alienated, and sometimes limited homesteads 
cannot be alienated at all. There is great variety in 
the laws of different States, and especially it should 
be noticed that in some parts of the country there is 
great uncertainty and liability to variation in the value 
of property, and a mortgage on estates one day said 
to be immensely valuable may more than exhaust 
the whole value another day. Some fine estates are 
made to sell, and I should be sorry to be the mort- 
gagee of a house in Chicago for half the value which 
it bore some years ago. It comes, I think, to this, 
that if a man with a good deal of money and a good 
knowledge of business devotes himself to the subject, 
he might invest his money well in this way in 
America ; or if you have a friend in America who is 
both competent and honest, and on whom you can 
thoroughly rely (but who in such matters can rely 
on anyone in these days ?), he may make a good in- 
vestment for you ; but it is not to be done by the or- 
dinary investor. 

As regards most of the State and city debts, and 
a variety of tempting investments of that kind, they 
require a very thorough knowledge of American pol- 
itics and finance, and I think that a man who has not 
that knowledge had better not touch them. 



FEELING T0WAKDS ENGLAND. 109 

FEELING TOWABDS ENGLAND. 

Let nie now say one word more before I have 
done as regards the feeling in the United States to- 
wards England. Upon the whole I am quite sure 
that the people there feel kindly towards us ; in fact, 
ninety-nine out of the hundred do so, and perhaps 
the hundredth has no really hostile feeling. But 
there does still remain, among some of the Americans, 
a feeling that we did not behave well or kindly to- 
wards them during their great Civil War, and espe- 
cially some of these men are persuaded that it is due 
to our conduct that their mercantile marine has been 
destroyed. I will not deny that our miscarriage in 
permitting privateers to avail themselves of our ports 
and prey upon the commerce of the United States 
had something to do, for the time, with the destruc- 
tion of their mercantile marine ; but we have paid 
heavy ' smart money 'for that ; and I believe that the 
real cause of the continued decadence of the marine is, 
not what was done by the ' Alabama,' but the protec- 
tive system, which makes it impossible for a citizen of 
the United States to sail a ship abroad without pay- 
ing for it a great deal more than a citizen of Great 
Britain pays for his ship. However, I fear it is the 
fact that in connection with this subject a sore feeling 
does in some quarters exist. I am afraid that there 
are some peo]3le in some of the States who, in case 
this country were involved in war, would very readily 
undertake the enterprise and excitement of priva- 

teerino; against our marine. I do not believe that 

© © 



110 bird's-eye view oe the united states. 

the central Government would willingly permit this ; 
but that Government is not strong enough to check 
all its citizens. If we could not prevent the i Alabama ' 
from going out of Liverpool can we be sure that the 
President of the United States could prevent ' Ala- 
bamas ' from going out from any port on the many 
thousand miles of seaboard of the United States \ 
This actual fact is certain, that, in view of the proba- 
bility or possibility of war with us, the Emperor of 
Russia has had several first-class cruisers built in 
Philadelphia, though he must have paid much more 
heavily for them than they would have cost in Europe; 
and the other day these cruisers were brought out 
and delivered over to the Russians with much parade. 
Happily this was after the immediate danger of war 
with Russia had passed. But that the vessels should 
have been built by Americans for the purpose for 
which they were intended seems to me to point to a 
very great danger. If we once got into a war there 
is no saying how far it might extend. If we ever go 
to war with Russia that country would strain every 
nerve, by means of such cruisers, to involve us with 
the United States ; and if once it comes to privateer- 
ing from United States ports there is all too much fear 
that sparks leading to a conflagration might be struck 
at any moment. I sincerely hope, by a -good under- 
standing, so terrible a calamity may be rendered al- 
most impossible ; and the word I say in conclusion, 
is, pray cultivate friendship, good-will, and amity 
with the people of the United States ; come to know- 
them well, and encourage them to know us well. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED 
RACES. 



The paper on i Black and White in the Southern 
States,' which follows this, has appeared in the ' Fort- 
nightly Review,' and is now republished, with the 
kind permission of the Editor. 1 was, as I have there 
stated, led to look particularly into the relations be- 
tween the black and white races in the Southern 
States, for the sake of the lessons that might be learned 
as bearing on our management of British possessions 
where white and black races are intermingled. 

I do not here speak of our great dependency, India, 
where our system has been to rule both races by a 
Government avowedly absolute and despotic. In regard 
to that system I am one of those to be judged rather 
than to judge others ; but this at least I may claim, that 
the Indian administration of the past cannot be ac- 
cused of any habitual subordination of the rights and 
interests of the coloured races to those of the whites. 

Of our Colonies, beyond a few very casual visits, 
I have no personal experience, but as a member of 
Parliament, and also in connection with the coolie 



112 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOUEED EACES. 

emigration from India to the Colonies, my attention has 
been during the past few years much directed to the 
management of our colonial possessions in tropical 
and semi-tropical regions. I cannot pretend to have 
mastered the details of the various colonies — the 
materials are not available. But the strong and 
broad glimpses obtained from official reports and 
Parliamentary papers and discussions have certainly 
led me to an unfavourable opinion of their adminis- 
tration as regards the treatment of the coloured races. 
In none of the Colonies does the Home Govern- 
ment exercise absolute and direct control, as in India ; 
in every case the colonists are admitted to some sub- 
stantial share in the government, whether in the 
shape of Constitutional Assemblies or of nominated 
Councils. Except to a limited degree in a portion of 
the Cape Colony proper (where, I believe, a very cred- 
itable and successful commencement has been made), 
there is no attempt to admit the coloured races to any 
share of political franchise — where there is any elec- 
tion of legislators or officials the election is in the 
hands of the white colonists only. And in the colo- 
nies called Crown Colonies the administration is al- 
most as much in the hands of a white oligarchy, for 
the Councils are mainly composed of the leading 
white colonists ; and the Colonial system is such (in 
this respect widely differing from that of India) that 
a large proportion of the official members of Council 
and other high officials are intimately connected by 
blood, business, and interest with the dominant race- 
of settlers. Whenever the views or interests of that 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 113 

race conflict with those of the labouring population 
the safe-guarding of the latter rests principally with 
the Governor sent out by the Colonial Office. Not 
only, however, is he in many cases without sufficient 
power, but also the atmosphere and surroundings in 
which he lives are such, and the public opinion which 
is heard of beyond the colony is so one-sided, that it 
requires much more than common firmness to do jus- 
tice in excited times. Some governors have nobly 
done their duty ; some have more or less failed, to do 
so. I think one might point to cases in which the 
latter have gone off in a blaze of popularity and 
obtained pleasant promotion, while those who have 
taken the part of subject races have fared very dif- 
ferently. 

In the colonies where slavery once prevailed there 
is a hankering after compulsion to labour, which has, 
I think, given rise to injustice in many cases ; and 
even in colonies where there never was slavery, and 
where one would have supposed oligarchical abuses 
the least possible, recent official inquiries have dis- 
closed an astounding partiality in financial matters. 
Not only to this day have the revenues of Malta and 
Ceylon been largely derived from taxes on the im- 
ported food of the people (while the rich by compar- 
ison escape) to a degree with which the worst days 
of protection in England cannot compare, but it ap- 
pears that in Ceylon the internal cultivation of 
paddy or rice, the food of the poorest of the people, 
is subjected to a special tax from which the valuable 
products of the rich colonists are exempt. 



114 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES, 

In our Colonies the disposition to compel labour 
has not affected the emancipated negroes nearly so 
much as in those of some other European countries. 
The negro has been to some extent under the protec- 
tion of a powerful philanthropic party in this coun- 
try ; and he himself, though good-natured and sub- 
missive up to a certain point, has shown that he can 
break out in an extremely dangerous w r ay when 
treated with injustice — we have had some exj)erience 
of that in Jamaica and elsewhere — and it is patent 
that the last negro outbreak in the Danish island of 
Santa Cruz was caused by extreme injustice in the 
attempt to limit wages and prevent free movement of 
the labourers. As a rule our colonists have probably 
more frequently failed to manage and utilise the free 
negro than greatly oppressed him. My own atten- 
tion has been more directed to the condition of the 
Indian labourers who have been substituted for the 
negro labour which has failed. Several inquiries by 
competent Royal Commissions in the past few years 
show that they have been treated with great unfair- 
ness in some of our colonies. 

In order to obtain the means of carrying on the 
coolie emigration the Government has been induced to 
sanction a system which would not be tolerated in the 
case of white labourers. In consideration that the 
expense is borne by the Colonies or the colonists, the 
labourers are bound down to labour for a teimof years. 
They do not engage themselves to masters whom they 
know, or to any individual, but are engaged to serve in 
the colony, and on their arrival are assigned to a master. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 115 

They are afterwards subject to be re-assigned and trans- 
ferred from one master to another, and from one estate 
to another, during the term of their indenture, without 
their own consent or voice in the matter. In short, 
call it as we may, and justify it as on the whole bene- 
ficial, if we can, there can be no doubt that it is a 
temporary, modified, and supervised slavery, so long 
as the obligation to labour lasts. The Indian Govern- 
ment have been careful to ascertain the voluntary 
character of the emigration, the fairness of the con- 
tracts, and the adequacy of the provision for the 
voyage ; but so soon as the coolie leaves India he 
passes out of their hands — the due execution of the 
contracts and the treatment of the coolie henceforth 
rest with the Colonial Administrations. It is evidently 
necessary that such a system, carried out in colonies 
where the masters are the dominant race, should be 
very jealously watched,'and there can be no question 
that the Colonial Office in England has always been 
actuated by a desire to protect the coolies. But there 
is great difference in the management of different 
colonies, and while some are good, abuses have crept 
into others. The Reports of the Royal Commissions, 
to which allusion has been made, show that in some 
instances the contracts made in India have not been 
fairly carried out, and that in several respects in- 
justice has been done. Great efforts have been made 
to remedy these evils, and I do not propose here 
to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the 
indenture system. What I have always strongly 
insisted on is, that at any rate after the indenture has 



116 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

expired, the coolie is entitled to be treated as a free 
man on a par with any other of Her Majesty's sub- 
jects ; and my great complaint has been that Colonial 
authorities, under the guise of vagrancy laws and the 
like, have curtailed that freedom and equality to the 
extent of making the emancipated coolie's life un- 
endurable till he consents to re-indenture. To the 
disclosures contained in the Report of the Royal 
Commission on the coolie system in the Mauritius 
I chiefly refer, as showing both the injustice which 
may be done under Colonial law and the insufficient 
power of the English Colonial Office to control and 
remedy the injustice. Mauritius is the colony in 
which the system of coolie emigration is oldest and 
best established. It is no inaccessible place, but 
thoroughly well known. It is ranked in the official 
Colonial Office list as a Crown Colony of the first 
class, ' in which the Crown has the entire control of 
legislation.' Yet the Report shows that the Colonial 
Legislature Raided, by a Governor who took the side 
of the whites, and withheld information from the 
Home Government) was able in 1867 to pass the 
most monstrous laws — not disguised as general laws, 
but expressly directed only against the time-expired 
Indian emigrants who refused to re-indenture for 
long terms. These people were treated, not as free 
men, but (as the Colonial Office authorities have de- 
scribed it) as if they were ticket-of-leave convicts of 
bad character, adscribed to their localities, subjected 
to the most harassing police supervision and tyranny, 
heavily taxed for the benefit of Colonial officials, and 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED KACES. 117 

oppressed by Colonial magistrates. One would have 
thought that, if this be really a Crown Colony, such 
disclosures had only to be made by such an authority 
as the Royal Commission to ensure an instant sweep- 
ing away of these injustices. I am sure no man ever 
presided at the Colonial Office with a greater desire to 
do justice than Lord Carnarvon; he immediately set; 
himself to do so, and he sent as Governor an old 
Indian administrator of whose desire to protect all 
classes there can be no question. But in truth, 
though Mauritius be a Crown Colony, as it is now 
constituted the Colonists have a majority in the 
Legislative Council, and Colonial views and ideas have 
much weight in the departments of the Colonial Office. 
Radical measures were not found easy ; it was deemed 
necessary in some shape to obtain the consent of and 
to a,ct through the Colonial Legislature. As a matter 
of fact several years passed in correspondence about 
draft bills ; up to the close of the last session of Parlia- 
ment the reformed legislation had not been passed ; 
I have only now learned that at last, at the end of 1878, 
the oppressive laws of 1867 have been repealed, and 
a new law passed which is a very great improvement. 
But even now the law does not treat the time-expired 
coolie as altogether free from restraint — he must be 
protected by a pass and by a photograph, which are 
to be surrendered to his employer whenever he takes 
sendee ; and he is still subject to certain rules and 
restrictions. 

While I write a very bad case of ill-treatment 
of coolies has been disclosed by papers presented 



118 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED KACES. 

to Parliament regarding the "West India island of 
Grenada. A new Administrator went to that island 
in 1878, and a new Protector of Coolies had been 
appointed on probation in the early part of that year. 
In August the latter not only reported very illegal 
and cruel treatment of a recently arrived cargo of 
coolies, but denounced the whole system prevailing 
in the island, asserting that the persons in charge of 
the estates neither took care of the coolies nor paid 
them, nor provided for them when sick, and worked 
them to such a pitch that few would survive. He 
added that of 2,000 coolies formerly imported very 
few remained ; that ' the treatment they received was 
iniquitous,' and that it was ' sad to think what has 
become of the bulk of them.' The complaints of the 
Protector in regard to the newly-arrived coolies were 
fully confirmed. The Administrator took energetic 
and praiseworthy measures to rescue the survivors, 
but remarked that the Protector himself was not free 
from blame for having allowed this state of things to 
be possible, and complained of ' the spirit which seems 
to actuate him as evinced by his report, his failure to 
move about sufficiently, and his not going to live in 
the district where most of the emigrants are.' He 
adds, however : ' Indeed, the person whose house I had 
engaged refused to give possession on finding who it 
Nvas required for.' I should have thought the refusal 
of the planters to let the Protector live among them 
was rather a ground for vigorous measures to keep 
them in order. But the Administrator was satisfied 
that they had ' an earnest disposition '' to do what 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 119 

was required ; and, ' as they are very* anxious to have 
an additional supply of immigrants, I see no reason 
why they should not have as many as they are able 
to pay for. ' 

Tt is stated that the Protector so recently appointed 
had been laid up by an accident. The Lieutenant- 
Governor of the Windward Islands, on the matter being 
referred to him, thought the Protector ' could not be 
altogether exonerated from blame.' 'But,' he added, 
1 he is in many respects a good officer. He speaks 
Hindustanee, and is trusted and liked by the coolies. 
His unpopularity among the planters is in itself evi- 
dence that he discharged his duties conscientiously.' 
However, it was eventually settled to sret over the 
difficulty by superseding the obnoxious Protector 
who had spoken out too strongly. As he was only 
' on probation ' he had no opportunity of defending 
himself. No inquiry was made into his allegations 
of past mismanagement ; but a new ordinance is to be 
considered by the local Legislature. The whole pro- 
ceeding certainly does not inspire me with confidence. 

I am one of those who believe that since we have, 
on one hand, in India great agricultural populations, 
docile, intelligent, and industrious, but constantly 
pressing on the means of subsistence, and on the 
other great possessions, which only require for their 
development such a population fitted for hot climates, 
it would be in every way beneficial from both points 
of view to encourage emigration from India, provided 
it be carried out on fair terms and the policy be 
accepted not merely to use the coolies as a substitute 



120 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

for slave labour under planter-masters, but to facili- 
tate their free colonisation and settlement on the 
soil under a liberal* system similar to that adopted in 
the United States. Planters might then trust to a 
good free population for voluntary hired labour. It is 
impossible that the natives of India should distinguish 
between the British Government which they know in 
India, and the British Government of each colony ; 
and the better colonies suffer in credit and popularity 
for the faults of the bad. I hold, then, strongly to the 
view that we are not justified in encouraging and 
facilitating this emigration till we have much greater 
security for the treatment of the emigrants and an 
effective assurance that the personal freedom which 
(as distinguished from political freedom) they enjoy 
in India in an eminent degree shall not be abridged. 

In some of our Wes£ Indian Colonies there have 
very recently been important questions with respect 
to the management of the negro labouring population, 
but it is in the African Colonies that the questions 
relating to the African races are of the highest im- 
portance. Recent events have attracted very great 
attention to the subject, and have been the occasion 
of a mass of official information published in Blue- 
books, in which I have been much interested. I put 
aside external political questions, and now look to 
th© matter only as regards, the treatment of the large 
masses of indigenous blacks whom we either have 
found in the territories which we have acquired or 
have received under our protection and immediate or 
mediate control; for it appears that disturbances and 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 121 

tyrannies beyond our borders have led to migrations of 
large numbers of natives and the settlement of many 
of them in our territories, or in Boer territory which 
we have since annexed. The great and long de- 
bated question in Africa seems to be, whether the 
natives who occupy large tracts almost exclusively 
are to be brought under civilised law or allowed to 
retain their own laws, more or less administered by 
their own chiefs. My own prepossessions have been 
entirely in favour of allowing the indigenes to retain 
their own laws, so far as they are not absolutely in- 
consistent with our system. That has been the prac- 
tice in India, in almost all things in the earlier days 
of our rule — and even when in later days we have come 
to regulate many things by codes common to white 
and black, we leave to every native class their own 
laws regarding marriage and inheritance, religious 
and social rites, and such-like matters. Since, how- 
ever, I have looked into the matter carefully I have 
seen reason to depart from this view as regards Africa, 
and rather to incline to a system which may lead us 
towards the state of things now found in America, 
where the Africans have been converted in manners, 
religion, language, and clothing, and assimilated to the 
white man's standard. The accounts we have of the 
African tribal administrations seem to be very un- 
favourable ; and though they are very often drawn 
from a hostile point of view, I must say that, looking 
to recent official summaries of native laws, as now 
administered in our Colonies, I do not think that 
they are such as it is desirable to retain. I do not here 



122 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

enter on questions of marriage and the like ; but cer- 
tainly as regards property the system seems to nega- 
tive altogether individual ownership in a way which 
must be fatal to settlement and progress. The head 
of the kraal and of the house seems to have absolute 
control over all the property of the community, and 
that power descends undivided to a single heir, sub- 
ject only to the customary liabilities in respect of the 
maintenance of the members of the house. Individual 
property is, it would seem, not recognised. These 
people are not the possessors of an old civilisation 
and ancient laws, under which they have learned to 
manage their own affairs ; they are in no degree in 
the position of Hindoo and Mahomedan races in In- 
dia. They are mere barbarians, with some ill-defined 
customs which we have reduced to law. Even their 
tribes seem generally not to be well-established tribes 
under chiefs who are looked up to as the hereditary 
heads of clans and who carry a traditionary influence 
with them. African tribes seem to be mere casual 
aggregations of people under the chief of the day. 
We are constantly told that a modern people have 
been made up of ' broken tribes ' and fragments of 
all sorts. I should judge, then, that there is little of 
native law or rule which we are much called on to re- 
spect when these people come under our jurisdiction. 
On the other hand, if we would adopt the method 
of taming and civilising these people, I think what I 
have seen in America goes far to show how much 
good may result. The situation of the blacks in 
Africa is, of course, very different from that of their 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 123 

congeners in America; but through all differences 
I seem to recognise the same radical characteristics 
in the men and the women too. There seems always 
to be the capacity for making excellent labourers; 
and the tribes whom we have most effectually con- 
verted to our ways, such as the Fingoes, appear to 
exhibit very considerable capacities for improvement 
and civilisation. Altogether I see much reason to 
suppose that the African is quite at his best Avhen 
working with the example, guidance, and assistance 
of white men and following their ways. Of course 
one cannot have long experience of newly-acquired 
territories without feeling that changes must not be 
too violent and sudden, and that in many cases we 
must receive people to a certain extent on their own 
terms, and allow them to retain for a time many laws 
and habits which we do not ourselves think the best. 
But I incline, so far as I have seen, to believe that in 
the case of these African populations our ultimate 
aim should be, not to govern them under their own 
laws and religions, as we do the Indian populations, 
but to assimilate them as far as possible, and to 
make them a good agricultural and labouring popu- 
lation. At any rate, I hope that what I tell in the 
following pages of Africans so treated in America 
may furnish to the reader some material for forming 
an opinion on this point. 

I am greatly disposed to think that if, by a just 
and equal rule, we humanise and improve these Afri- 
can natives, protecting them from class tyranny of 
the white man on the one hand, and from their 



124 THE MANAGEMENT OE COLOURED RACES. 

chiefs on the other, and teaching them to work as 
free men with the white man, great things may be 
achieved by these large populations in a vast country 
of great capabilities. The proof that South Africa 
has capacities is, that colonists can now afEord to pay 
wages which, seem much to exceed those paid in 
America. We may well hope that if they obtain a 
very large supply of the labour of humanised natives 
great prosperity may ensue and industry may be im- 
mensely developed, without any of those compulsory 
and unfair methods to which whites lording it over 
coloured races have sometimes been tempted to resort. 
I am sure no one can compare the present state of 
these African populations under their own tribal 
system with that of civilised Africans in America 
without feeling that such a change would be im- 
mensely beneficial to the native races of South 
Africa. 

From a selfish point of view I think we might 
especially look to such a consummation as beneficial 
to this country, because we have a very large and 
increasing class for whom it is becoming more and 
more difficult to provide : I mean the educated classes, 
somewhat above mere manual labour. I have said 
that I do not think America the country for that 
class — there I put it that the only farmer sure to 
succeed is he who holds the plough himself. After 
the early days of successful squatting have passed I 
suspect that most of our temperate colonies approxi- 
mate to a similar condition. It would be very desira- 
ble that there should be somewhere a field for the 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 125 

more educated and enterprising class, who are more 
fitted to direct and utilise labour than to do the mere 
manual work. Such a field might, I fancy, be found 
in South Africa, if we could humanise a great labour- 
ing population and establish a state of things such 
that a young man of good education, good tact, and 
>real energy might successfully work a large farm or 
other enterprise with the aid of native labour. 

All this, however, is chiefly speculation. I only 
throw out these hints as showing the sort of problems 
I have had in my mind when I went to study ' the 
nigger question '.in America, with the result set out 
in the following pages. 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN 

STATES. 



During a recent tour in the United States I was 
particularly anxious to obtain information regarding 
the relation of the black and white races, not only 
because the subject is in itself of immense interest to 
commerce and humanity, but because it is of special 
interest to ourselves, called on to deal with masses of 
the black race in South Africa, and the possessors of 
many lands in which white and coloured races are 
intermingled. In some of our colonies it has been 
supposed that the free negro has shown a great 
indisposition to labour. On the other hand, cotton, 
the great staple of the Southern States, and formerly 
almost entirely raised by slave labour, has been pro- 
duced in larger quantity since emancipation than ever 
it was before. How, I sought to know, has that been 
managed, political disturbances and difficulties not- 
withstanding ? 

As regards political questions, too, I am much 
impressed with the belief that our management of 
territories where white and black races are intermixed 
has not always been successful. An oligarchical sys- 
tem of government generally prevails in our tropical 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 127 

colonies, under which considerable injustice has, I 
think, sometimes been done to the East Indian la- 
bourers imported to take the place of the emanci- 
pated negroes. Except in the Cape Colony proper 
no political representation has been allowed to the 
coloured races. I was, then, very anxious to see the 
effect of the political emancipation of the negroes in 
the Southern States of the Union. 

In the course of my tour I have had opportunities 
of conversing with many men of many classes (and 
quite as much on one side of politics as the other), 
who have had the greatest experience of the blacks 
in various aspects — educational, industrial, political, 
and other. I am indebted to them for information 
given to me with a freedom, frankness, and liberality 
for which I cannot be sufficiently grateful ; to none 
more so than to many Southern gentlemen who have 
gone through all the bitternesses of a great war on 
the losing side and the social revolution which fol- 
lowed — men whose good temper and fairness of state- 
ment, after all that has passed, commanded my ad- 
miration. I have visited not only the towns but the 
rural districts of four of the principal States for- 
merly slave-holding, viz., Virginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, and Georgia; and it so happened 
that I was in South Carolina ( the ne pins ultra of 
Southernism) on the day of the late general election. 
I have seen and conversed with the negroes in their 
homes and in their fields, in factories, in churches, 
and in political meetings, and I think I have also 
been able to learn something of a very prominent 






128 .THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

part of the population — the negresses. I feel that a 
single tour must still leave much to be learnt, but I 
have honestly weighed and compared all the infor- 
mation I have obtained from different sources, and 
submit the general result for what it may be worth. 
If my conclusions do not in themselves carry much 
weight, I hope that I may perhaps succeed in indica- 
ting some points worthy of inquiry and discussion. 



THE CHARACTER AND CAPACITY OF THE NEGRO. 

The first and most difficult question is the capa- 
city of the negro as compared with other races. In 
one sense all men are born equal before God ; but no 
one supposes that the capacities of all men are equal, 
or that the capacities of all races are equal, any more 
than the capacities of all breeds of cattle or dogs, 
which we know differ widely. There is, therefore, 
no prima facie improbability of a difference of capa- 
city between the white Aryan and the negro race, 
though I believe there is no ground for presuming 
that white races must be better than black. 

It is unnecessary to try to distinguish between 
differences due to unassisted nature and those due to 
domestication and education. No doubt the varieties 
of wild animals found in different countries differ 
considerably ; but the differences due to cultivation 
seem to be still more prominent in the animals and 
plants with which we are best acquainted. It is 
enough to take the negro as he is, and his history and 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 129 

surroundings need only be briefly glanced at in so far 
as they afford some key to his present position and 
immediate prospects. 

The negro race now in America is derived from 
an admixture of people of various African tribes, 
probably differing considerably among themselves, 
but all, it may be assumed, in a more or less savage 
and little civilised condition. They have all passed 
two or three generations in slavery to white men, 
during which period all traces of their various origin 
have been lost, as well as their original lan^ua^es and 
habits. And now, though variety of breed, affecting 
their capacity, may still to some degree be present, 
if we could trace it, I believe that it is impossible to 
do so, and that we must deal with them as a single, 
English-speaking people. They are also now all 
Christians ; and though some African traditions may 
linger among them, they have for the most part 
adopted the dress and manners of their white mas- 
ters, and have been greatly civilised. In this latter 
respect there is, however, a considerable distinction. 
One portion of the negroes has lived in parts of the 
country where the white population was numerous — 
equal to or more numerous than the blacks — and 
thus, working among and in very intimate contact 
with white people, has very thoroughly learned their 
ways, habits, and ideas. But there is a broad belt 
round the outer portion of the Southern States where 
the climate is very injurious to the white man, and 
almost impossible to the ordinary white labourer. In 

this tract, containing much of the most productive 





130 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

country, the whole labouring population was and is 
negro, the few white men being, in slave times, only 
the masters and drivers, and in no degree the com- 
rades of the blacks. In these tracks we have a thick 
population not so completely converted. Their lan- 
guage is still to some degree a sort of pigeon or negro 
English, and they are still to some extent a peculiar 
people — perhaps less good workers than those more 
thoroughly educated by contact with whites, but prob- 
ably as a rule more simple and docile. It should 
be noticed, however, that considerable migrations 
have taken place in the troubles consequent on the 
war, and that there has been some intermixture of 
the two classes. 

At the time of emancipation the negroes were 
destitute of education to an excessive degree. Not 
only were means of education wanting to them, but 
after some local troubles which alarmed the masters 
most of the Southern States passed laws making it 
highly penal to educate a negro. These laws endured 
to the last, and under them the generation upon whom 
emancipation came grew up entirely without instruc- 
tion. The only educated persons of the race were 
the few free blacks who had obtained instruction in 
the North, and a very few favourite domestic slaves, 
whom their mistresses had to some degree educated, 
the penal laws notwithstanding. Since emancipation 
a good deal has been done to educate the negro. 
Many schools in which a superior education is af- 
forded have been maintained by benevolent North- 
erners, and the State Governments have set up, and 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 131 

continue to maintain, several colleges in which the 
more ambitious and aspiring young blacks are edu- 
cated. For the education of the masses a public 
school system has been started in all 'the States, of 
which the blacks have a fair share. Owing, how- 
ever, to financial difficulties these schools are ex- 
tremely imperfect, being open but a small portion of 
each year — in some States as little as two months, and 
in none, I believe, more than about four months on 
an average. However, this is better than nothing. 
The negroes show a laudable zeal for education, and 
upon the whole I think that as much has been done 
as could be expected under the circumstances. 

During the last dozen years the negroes have had 
a very large share of political education. Considering 
the troubles and the ups and downs that they have 
gone through, it is, I think, wonderful how beneficial 
this education has been to them, and how 7 much these 
people, so lately in the most debased condition of 
slavery, have acquired independent ideas, and, far 
from lapsing into anarchy, have become citizens with 
ideas of law and property and order. The white serfs 
of European countries took hundreds of years to rise 
to the level which these negroes have attained in a 
dozen. Such has been the thoroughness of the meas- 
ures adopted in America. 

Another education has, I think, greatly affected 
the character and self-reliance of the negroes. I 
mean what I may call their religious education. 
Like most primitive races (the aborigines of India, 
for instance) they are inclined to take Christianity in 



a more literal sense than their more civilised fellow- 
Christians, who have managed to explain most of it 
away to their own satisfaction. And these negroes 
are by temperament extremely religious people of an 
emotional type. They like to go direct to God him- 
self, and are quite unwilling to submit to priests 
claiming to stand between them and God. Hence it 
is that the Catholic hierarchy has had no success with 
them, and j)robably never will have. Every man and 
woman likes to be himself or herself an active member 
of the Church. And though their preachers are in a 
great degree their leaders, these preachers are chosen 
by the people from the people, under a system for the 
most part congregational, and are rather preachers 
because they are leaders than leaders because they are 
preachers. In this matter of religion the negroes 
have utterly emancipated themselves from all white 
guidance — they have their own churches and their 
own preachers, all coloured men — and the share they 
take in the self-government of their churches really 
is a very important education. The preachers to our 
eyes may seem peculiar. American orators somewhat 
exaggerate and emphasize our style, and the black 
preachers somewhat exaggerate the American style ; 
but on the whole I felt considerably edified by them. 
They come to the point in a way that is refreshing 
after some sermons that one has heard. I did not 
witness any of the more active emotions in which I 
understand congregations sometimes indulge ; but 
the practice of emitting in a hearty way a sort of 
responses here and there during the sermon seemed 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHEKN STATES. 133 

to me earnest and not unbecoming. I witnessed a 
convention of Baptist ministers (the blacks generally 
are Baptists or Methodists), in a rural church, and it 
was a pleasant sight. The ministers by no means 
had it all their own way. The whole country-side 
seemed to have come in to assist, both men and 
women — and they seemed to be making a time of it 
— camped about for the day. 

The prominent position taken by the negro women 
is a feature in which they are distinguished from 
some Oriental races. No doubt this has some ad- 
vantages, but also I shall have to note some attend- 
ant disadvantages — social, industrial, and political. In 
matters matrimonial the women are somewhat too in- 
dependent and light-hearted; and the men also being 
on this subject given to a rather loose philosophy, the 
marital tie is not so binding and indissoluble as it 
might be. Those who take an unfavourable view of 
the negro character are in the habit of speaking of 
these traits of their character in severe language, and 
dwelling much on their immorality and want of family 
affection. I think, however, that it is scarcely fair to 
judge them by too high a standard. The truth is 
that the Aryan family has hardly yet established it- 
self among the negroes, and it is not surprising that 
this should be so. In Africa we know that nothing 
of the kind exists ; there, no doubt, the progenitors 
of the American blacks lived under the loose polyga- 
mistic system still prevailing there. Under slavery 
the family could not be introduced — it was impossible 
that there could be much permanency of marital ar- 



134" THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

rangernents when the parties were constantly liable to 
be, and very frequently were, sold away like cattle; 
and the relation between parent and child was espe- 
cially weakened, or rather not created. The parents 
were not really responsible for the children ; on the 
contrary, the women were sent to work, and the chil- 
dren were carefully tended by persons appointed by 
the masters for the purpose, like calves or lambs or 
any other valuable stock. Parents had little affection 
for children thus reared, and children owed no respect 
and obedience to parents. The family as we know it 
is, in fact, a novelty to the negro since emancipation, 
and such institutions are not perfected in a day. Still 
the evil is a very grave one, esj^ecially in regard to 
the relations between parents and children. I have 
heard many authentic stories of children who have 
deserted or neglected their parents in a shocking 
manner, and the more than American liberty of the 
children threatens to render the next generation less 
tractable and useful than their fathers bred in slavery. 
We can only hope that time and religious influences 
will more completely establish the family system. 
Though the exceptions are many, there seems already 
to be much that is good and kind in the relations of 
the blacks to one another. If in some respects, other 
than marital, the women are rather troublesome, it 
seems that in this as in other things they have rather 
exaggerated American ways than set up ways of 
their own. Seeing the liberty, equality, and privi- 
leges enjoyed by the free white women, the negro 
women insist that their position among their own 
race shall not be inferior. 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 135 

One great difficulty in estimating the qualities of 
the negro race, as tested by education, &c, is, that 
since under the American system all who have any 
share of black blood are classed with blacks, a large 
proportion of those who have received the most educa- 
tion. in former days, and who most frequently become 
known as prominent coloured men, are mulattos of 
mixed blood ; so, in fact, are many of the students in 
the higher schools. Whatever the qualities of those 
whose blood is mixed in various degrees, they are evi- 
dently no safe index of the negro qualities and capa- 
cities, and it is necessary to be constantly on one's 
guard on this point when one generalises from expe- 
rience of individuals. 

As respects the mulattos there is much disposition 
to disparage them; but I am inclined to think that 
this is in great part due to their peculiar jDosition — 
they are rejected from all the society of the whites, 
and have not been accepted by the blacks as their 
natural leaders. The same tone of disparagement has 
generally been adopted regarding the Eurasians, the 
people of mixed blood in India ; yet I believe their 
failure is more due to an unfortunate position than to 
want of effective qualities. In early days Skinners 
and Gardeners were men of great mark, and the Eura- 
sian drummer-boys of the old sepoy regiments were 
physically fine men and good athletes. I understand 
that in the New Orleans country, under the French 
practice (which has not our Anglo-Saxon antipathy to 
intimacy with coloured races), many Creoles of mixed 
blood attained a far higher position than in other 
parts of the United States. 



136 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

Reverting now to the capacities of the negro 
proper as we find him in America tinder the circum- 
stances which I have described, the general opinion of 
those engaged in the education of the race is, that 
while the younger children are as quick and bright 
as white children, they do on the average fall off in 
some degree as they get older. Yet this opinion is not 
given without some consideration and qualification ; 
the intellectual gulf between the two races does not 
seem to be very wide and evident. I am told on all 
hands that some pure negroes show an educational 
capacity quite equal to that of good whites. Nothing 
is more difficult than to estimate accurately qualities 
of this kind, especially when, as in this case, the two 
classes are not taught together, but separately ; and 
there has not yet been time to see much of the results 
of educating the blacks on a large scale ; but I think 
that in general terms the direction in which all ex- 
perience points is that which I have stated, viz., that 
on the whole they are behind, but not very far behind. 

When we look to practical success in life appear- 
ances seem at first sight less favourable to the blacks. 
I constantly asked, ' Have any individuals among them 
come to the front and achieved success in industrial 
pursuits, in commerce, or in the professions ? ' and I 
could not learn that they have. ' There were,' I said, 
' before the war a number of free blacks, many of them 
educated ; have none of them distinguished themselves 
in practical life ? And since emancipation the negroes 
have for years had the upper hand in some of the 
Southern States ; have none of them come to the front 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 137 

among their own race by the process of natural selec- 
tion which has raised men to greatness in barbarous 
and Oriental countries ? ' Well, as I have already 
mentioned, they have shown some capacity as preach- 
ers, and they seem to have some talent for oratory 
(though I believe that Frederick Douglas and one or 
two other well-known men are mulattos, not real 
negroes). As politicians some of them have done 
fairly well, and are now good and popular represen- 
tatives of their race ; but I don't think any of them 
have made a great mark. The politics of the Southern 
States, while negro majorities prevailed, seem to have 
been in reality entirely under the guidance of the 
white ' Carpet-baggers.' 

For the rest I have not been able to hear of a suc- 
cessful negro merchant — the shopkeeping business 
in the most negro districts is almost entirely in the 
hands of whites. I have scarcely found a negro who 
has risen in the mercantile world higher than an 
apple-stall in a market. Certain professions they 
almost monopolise throughout the Union — waiters 
and barbers, and in some parts ship-caulkers ; but I 
found very few negro lawyers, and no doctors. All 
over the world it is curious to notice how ready people 
are to entrust the care of their souls to very unsafe 
home-rulers, and how much less trustful they are of 
their bodies. 

When I have put these failures to the friends of 
the negroes they reply that allowance must be made 
for very great disadvantages — even in the North, 
they say, the free negroes were subjected to a social 



138 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

ostracism which made their success in commerce and 
the professions almost impossible. And as regards 
the South, they say, ' Since emancipation how short a 
time has elapsed ! — people enslaved and denied educa- 
tion cannot rise in a day.' In all this there is much 
truth. Still I cannot help thinking that if the race 
had been a very pushing and capable one, the men 
educated in the North would ere this have made more 
way in the South. ' Do you think,' I have said, ' that 
if they had been Chinamen they would not, in spite of 
all these disadvantages, have found their w x ay to the 
front in some directions ? ' I think it is admitted that 
to some extent this is so. The negroes are certainly 
not a race remarkable for energy and force under dif- 
ficulties. The only question is whether they are very 
deficient in these qualities. As respects mercantile 
qualities, we may remember that there are many ex- 
cellent races who show no aptitude that way and 
permit alien races to usurp the mercantile functions. 
In the Southern States the white Americans them- 
selves are very much ousted from the business of 
small storekeepers by the Germans, who are to the 
manner born. 

What is more disappointing is the failure of the 
negroes, so far, as superior artisans and in all that re- 
quires accuracy and care. As it is expressed, they are 
not responsible — they cannot be depended on. In 
slavery times some of them were pretty good artisans, 
and many of them, in the South, are now fairly good 
carpenters, bricklayers, and blacksmiths. But they 
seem hardly to have progressed in this respect since 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 139 

emancipation. A man who will do his carpentry so 
far well enough will not fit the pieces accurately; 
and in factories which employ black labour they do 
not rise to the higher posts. In the North the trades 
unions are so strong, and the jealousy of the negroes 
on the part of foreigners, Irish and others, is so great, 
that they would not have a fair chance ; but in the 
South they labour under no such disadvantage, and 
employers rather prefer negro labour ; yet in practice 
they don't seem to be able to trust the blacks beyond 
a certain point. In mechanical shops the blacks do 
the manual labour, but are hardly trusted to work 
engines. ' Perhaps a negro might learn to work the 
engine,' an employer said to me, 'but I never could 
be sure that he would not go to sleep on the top of 
it.' In tobacco factories the labour is almost exclu- 
sively negro, and many of them are very well paid 
for labour requiring considerable skill ; but I noticed 
that for certain work, the weighing and making up 
the packages and such-like, white men were always 
employed. I was in all these cases assured that no 
black man could be trusted to be accurate. Yet 
they make very fair cotton-farmers, and much of their 
handiwork in various branches of industry is quite 
good. 

On the whole, I think it must be considered that 
at present, whether from natural defects or from want 
of cultivation, they are to a certain extent inferior to 
white men in the qualities which lead to the higher 
grades of employment. On the other hand, they 
have a very remarkable good nature and good temper, 



140 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

much docility, and great physical power and endu- 
rance — qualities that admirably fit them for labourers. 
Considering from how low and oppressed a condition 
they have been lately raised, and how infinitely 
higher their position now is, it is hardly ground for 
disappointment that they do not immediately rise in 
large numbers to the higher grades of society. They 
have now opportunities of education which will enable 
them to rise, if they are fitted or when they are fitted 
for it. For the present we may deal with them in 
their existing position as the labouring population of 
the Southern States. 



THE NEGROES AS A LABOURING POPULATION 

To understand the relations between the whites of 
the South and the blacks, as labourers and farmers, 
^Ye must go back a little. In later slave times — in 
the States, at least, to which my inquiries were chiefly 
directed — the slaves were not worked out like omnibus 
horses ; in fact, the capital sunk in slaves was so 
heavy, and produce had become so cheap, that the 
principal source of profit was what . was called the 
' increase ' of the slaves — the breeding them for the 
market or for new plantations opened in the more 
Western States. As in breeding-farms for other 
kinds of stock, the human stock was carefully, and, 
on the whole, kindly treated ; and although the sell- 
ing off the young stock as it became fit for the market 
was a barbarous process, still, the family relations 
being so weak as I have described, those who re- 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 141 

mainecl did not feel it so much as we should ; and I 
think it may be said that the relations between the 
masters and the slaves were generally not unkindly. 
One old gentleman in Carolina dwelt much on the 
kindness and success with which he had treated his 
slaves, adding as the proof and the moral that they 
had doubled in twenty years. 

Then it must be remembered that in all the older 
States the whole of the land was private property — 
there was no unowned land available to squatters — 
and through all the political troubles the rights of 
property have been maintained inviolate ; neither by 
mob violence nor by class laws have they been inter- 
fered with. In some limited portions of the Southern 
States, occupied early in the war by United States 
troops, a good deal of the property of absent seces- 
sionists was sold for non-payment of taxes in a way 
which the Southerners call confiscation, but this was 
clone by the authority of the United States Govern- 
ment. The Carpet-bagger and Negro State Govern- 
ments and Legislatures never seriously infringed on 
the rights of property. 

After the war the Southerners accepted the situa- 
tion as few but Americans can accept a defeat, and, 
instead of throwing up their hands and crying to 
heaven, sought to make the best of the lands that re- 
mained to them. It seemed not impossible that, the 
property in slaves being written off as lost, the land 
might be as cheaply and effectively cultivated by 
hired labour, if the negroes could be got to work ; at 
any rate it was a necessity to get it cultivated some- 



142' THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

how. The negroes, on the other hand, found that they 
must work or starve ; and the feeling between them 
and their former masters being, as I have said, not un- 
friendly, the matter was arranged in one way or another. 

Under the old system there were no great estates 
in the English sense — that is, very large properties, 
let to tenants. The large plantations were what we 
should call large farms, several hundred acres — up to, 
say, a thousand or fifteen hundred — being cultivated 
by the owner with slave labour. Some of the old 
owners, and some Northerners and Englishmen who 
purchased encumbered estates at a cheap rate, at first 
tried to maintain this system with hired labour, but 
the result has been to show that, as in almost all the 
States of the Union, large farming does not pay as 
well as small farming, and consequently the large 
farms have for the most part been broken up or let 
to small farmers. 

There is a general concurrence of opinion, and not 
of opinion only, but of the most practical experience, 
that the blacks make admirable labourers when they 
are under sufficient supervision. On public works, and 
all undertakings carried on under professional superin- 
tendence, nothing can be better or more effective than 
their labour. They are physically exceedingly fine 
men ; they stand any climate and any weather, and 
are quite ready to do a good day's work for a mode- 
rate day's pay, provided it is fairly and regularly paid. 
I heard of no case in which when such work has been 
offered to them they have preferred to squat down in 
idleness ; that allegation asrainst the ne<n*o character 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 143 

seems to me quite disproved by experience. The 
worst said is that they cannot always be depended on, 
and sometimes after labouring for a time will go off 
for a time. There may be some cases in which, work 
not being readily available, and little assistance or 
guidance forthcoming, they have sunk into a some- 
what degraded condition, but such cases are quite rare 
and exceptional. I came across none, though I have 
heard it asserted that there are such. On small farms, 
where black men work in small numbers, in company 
with and under the immediate control of their em- 
ployers, they do exceedingly well ; also when they 
work on their own account they do very well. It is 
only where they are employed in large numbers, under 
insufficient supervision, as on very large farms, that 
they are apt to take it easy and idle away their time 
as is the case with most such races. 

Not only is the negro labour excellent, but also 
there is among the Southern proprietors and leading 
men accustomed to black labour, and not so used to 
whites, a disposition greatly to rely on black labour 
as a conservative element, securing them against the 
dangers and difficulties which they see arising from 
the combinations and violence of the white labourers 
in some of the Northern States ; and on this ground 
the blacks are cherished and protected by democratic 
statesmen, who now hold power in the South. 

As in other j3arts of America, wages are not so 
high as they were ; but a common negro labourer in 
rural districts can generally earn' about fifty cents, 
say two shillings, u day ; and that, with food so cheap 



144 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

as it is, and in a country which requires little fuel 
and no very expensive shelter, it is a very good wage. 
Nothing so much brings home to me the poverty and 
lowness of living of our Indian population as to hear 
these wages talked of as low ; being, as they are, six 
or eight times the wages of a coolie in India, while 
food is scarcely, if at all, dearer. In truth, the 
negroes are very well oif. 

More important than the rate of wages is the 
question whether the black labourers show any dis- 
position to providence and saving. There is a good 
deal of discrepancy in the evidence on this subject, 
but on the whole I am afraid it must be said that the 
balance of evidence is decidedly against them. It 
seems pretty clear that providence is as yet the ex- 
ception, and that the rule is a light-hearted way of 
spending their money as they get it. A very great 
scandal and evil was the failure of the Freedman's 
Bank, in which so many were induced to put their 
savings in the days of high wages. I suspect that in 
the case of the negro, as of other races, prudence will 
not come but with the growth of desires and ambi- 
tions only to be satisfied by saving. 

In some parts of the country there has been a 
considerable lack of female labour. In slave days 
women were probably worked too much ; now they 
sometimes work too little, because, in the parts where 
they are much mixed with whites, the negro women, 
seeing that the white women clo not work in the 
fields, and being, more than the men, inclined to 
assert equality, refuse out-door work. I have no 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 145 

sympathy whatever with the sentimental feeling 
which would stigmatise the field labour of honest 
Scotch or German women as degrading, and I do not 
sympathise with negro ladies who make their hus- 
bands work while they enjoy the sweets of emancipa- 
tion. But after all they are only following the most 
usual American fashion in regard to out- door labour ; 
and both in the more negro parts of the country, at 
all times, on their own farms at cotton-picking seasons, 
and everywhere at in-door labour, the negro women 
work well enough. 

I inquired whether the black labourers have 
shown any disposition to violent outbreaks such as 
have occurred in several West India islands, but I 
could only hear of one such case, when the hired 
labourers in some of the rice-plantations of South 
Carolina struck for wages, and used much violence 
towards non-strikers, hunting them about with whips. 
The whites attempting to apprehend the rioters were 
mobbed, and the affair at one time looked very seri- 
ous ; but, by the aid of influential black politicians, 
the matter was accommodated, and the labourers have 
since worked well and quietly. I am told that though 
in their immediate demands the blacks were in the 
wrong, they had much ground of complaint, owing 
to the practice of some of the employers, who, not 
being able to pay the wages earned and due, put the 
labourers off with checks upon stores kept on the 
truck principle. So here, also, there was some in- 
j ustice at the bottom of the affair. But it shows that 

when stirred up there is always this element of ex- 
10 



146 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

citability and potential violence in the negro charac- 
ter. Here, also, I understand, the women came to the 
front. The men might have been managed, but the 
women were terribly violent. 

The great majority, I take it, of the negroes are 
not employed at regular wages, but work more or 
less as farmers of a sort. Not only are large farms 
generally unsuccessful in America, but in the South 
there is very great deficiency of capital to work such 
farms ; and so it has come about that most of the land 
is cultivated on a sort of co-operative or Metayer- 
tenant system. Virginia still contains a large negro 
population, and I saw one instance of a large estate 
still successfully cultivated by hired black labour, 
under a proprietor well known for his kind treatment 
of the negroes ; but others doubt his profits, and say 
that his success is due to large private means, and 
that there are not many such instances. In fact, 
Virginia, not being a cotton State, is somewhat un- 
fortunately situated. The influx of cheap cereals 
from the West makes their culture in the East un- 
profitable ; and in the culture of its old staple, tobac- 
co, Virginia has been surpassed by some more Western 
States. Except in the higher tracts in the west of 
the State, where excellent pastures support very fine 
cattle, I am afraid it is not very prosperous. 

From North Carolina all the way round to Texas 
there is a belt of States in which cotton is to an over- 
whelming degree the staple. That staple is certainly 
now produced in greater quantity than ever it was, 
and it cannot be said that this tract has in any degree 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 147 

receded or ceased to progress, even though the want 
of money resulting from the war and its consequences 
is still very greatly felt. The cotton I speak of is 
the ordinary short cotton, which always has formed 
the great bulk of the American crop. There is a nar- 
row belt on the seacoast, which used to produce in 
part the long, or Sea Island cotton, and in part rice, 
where there has certainly been a great falling off ; 
but this is, I believe, chiefly due to other causes than 
the emancipation of the slaves. The long-cotton plant 
produces but a fraction of the quantity that the ordi- 
nary cotton yields, and requires a more expensive 
and careful cultivation. It never could be produced 
at a profit except at a price several times greater than 
that of ordinary cotton. Now that Egyptian cotton 
to a great degree supplies the wants of manufactur- 
ers, no considerable quantity of Sea Island will fetch 
this price in the market, and consequently its produc- 
tion has fallen off. So as regards the American rice, 
which was -once in great demand. It is now so un- 
dersold by Indian rice that it is not exported, and 
scarcely holds its own in America by the aid of a 
heavy protective duty. I did not see the sugar-lands 
of Louisiana. I understand that the sugar-culture a 
good deal fell off, but has recovered itself, aided as 
it is by a protective duty. It is, however, at a great 
disadvantage compared with the West India sugar, 
the frosts often prematurely killing the American 
annual, while the West Indians get two or three 
crops from one planting. I doubt if sugar will ever 
be a great American staple. 



148 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOUKED RACES. 

We may take, then, the ordinary cotton as the 
great subject of black labour in the South. For 
some years the produce has begun to overtop the 
best years before the war, and the late cotton-pick- 
ing season, which was going on when I visited the 
Southern States, very far exceeded any previous crop, 
the season having been altogether favourable and the 
late autumn unusually favourable to cotton-picking. 
There seemed to be no doubt that the crop would 
considerably exceed five millions of bales ; and if it 
had not been for the extreme stagnation of the cotton 
manufacturing trade, and consequent lowness of prices, 
the South would be in a fair way to recovery. Let 
us see, then, how this great cotton crop is raised. 
There has been an idea prevalent that much of it is 
due to white labour, and there is some truth in this, 
but only to a limited degree. It has now been dis- 
covered that cotton (really a very hardy plant) will 
grow very well on the high red soils not generally 
supposed to be cotton-lands, and by the aid of stimu- 
lating fertilisers it is brought to maturity earlier than 
formerly ; consequently it has advanced some distance 
north of its former limits and a considerable distance 
up into the higher parts of the Southern States (along 
the Alleghany range), where small white farmers 
abound. There has also been a great increase in 
Texas, where, I believe, most of the farmers are white, 
but I did not see that country. In the Carolinas and 
Georgia it is certainly the case that a good deal of 
cotton is raised by small upland white farmers who 
did not raise it before ; in part by their own labour, 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 149 

and in part by the aid of the black labourers whom 
they employ. The portion, however, of the crop 
which is raised exclusively by white labour is, I be- 
lieve, very small ; the whites generally prefer other 
crops; cotton culture is especially suited to the 
blacks. There is rather a change from large farmers 
to small, than from black to white labourers. Tak- 
ing, then, the normal condition of the cotton districts 
— white ownership and black labour — the owners 
still cultivate by hired labour moderate home-farms, 
but the greater portion of their lands they let out to 
blacks on a variety of terms. First there is a mere 
co-operative arrangement under which the owner 
supplies land, seed, mule, implements, and all, and 
exercises a general supervision over- the culture, giv- 
ing the labourer a share of the crop rather than 
taking a share from him. The labourer's share is, 
moreover, subject to deduction for food supplied to 
him during the cultivating season. Then we have 
regular Metayer tenants, who themselves find the 
mule and implements, the crop being divided with 
the landlord; and again many tenants who pay a 
fixed rent in cotton— so many bales — and a few (com- 
paratively rare) who pay money rents. Sometimes 
white men rent land and cultivate with negro la- 
bourers, but most frequently the owner deals direct 
with the negro. 

I have said that the cotton cultivation is suited to 
the blacks ; it is easily carried on upon a small scale 
— as slaves they have learned to raise it. A single 
mule and a light plough suffice for the operations of 



150 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

a small farm. The cotton gives employment almost 
all the year round, especially at the season unfavour- 
able to white labour. After preparing the ground, 
sowing and tending it, there is much and constant 
hoeing and clearing to be done. Then at picking- 
time the negro family turns out, and much work is 
done without expense which would be very expensive 
to do by hired labour. And after the cotton is 
picked many hands, especially the women, find em- 
ployment in the ginning mills. The ginning system 
makes the division of shares much easier than it 
otherwise would be. The hand-gins have completely 
gone out. All the cotton must of necessity be 
brought to the mills. After being ginned it is divi- 
ded, and the account is struck. 

The cotton is then produced, and things go on 
much better than might have been expected under 
the circumstances. Yet, after all, this is rather at- 
tained by make-shifts the result of necessity, than 
based on a settled and satisfactory system. Although 
after the war the proprietors and the ex-slaves came 
to terms to carry on the cultivation, it must not be 
supposed that the former slaves have generally re- 
mained with their old masters. In some cases no 
doubt this is so, but it is the exception. Not only 
have war and revolution caused considerable migra- 
tions, but there seems to have been a general feeling 
that freedom was not practically realised till the 
slaves had left their masters, if it were only for a 
time. Both parties seem to have felt that it should 
be so ; and it often happened that while remaining on 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN" STATES. 151 

quite friendly terms with their old masters, and even 
coming to them for advice and assistance, A's former 
slaves would prefer to cultivate under B, and B's 
slaves under A. Altogether, somewhat migratory 
habits were set up, which the existing system of 
agriculture has not tended to diminish. Some men 
whose means admit of a liberal system, by which 
assistance is rendered to the cultivators, are well sat- 
isfied on the whole with the result of the present 
method, but more generally it is found that there is a 
want of fixity and stability about it. The cultiva- 
tion is carried on in a somewhat imperfect and hand- 
to-mouth sort of way, and the negroes frequently 
change about from one estate to another. Except 
some short clearance leases, there is no system of 
leases of cleared land ; it is merely held from year to 
year, and there is no system of compensation for im- 
provements under which the tenant might improve 
his house, his fences, and his land, and settle himself 
down. On the contrary, it is a common complaint 
that much land is allowed to run out into ravines, or 
is otherwise neglected and exhausted, and then aban- 
doned by the tenant. 

No doubt the purely commercial system of land- 
letting succeeds in Scotland and parts of England, 
where we have capitalist landlords and large capitalist 
farmers ; but I am more and more convinced by all 
I can see and learn in various countries that a small- 
farm system, under which the landlord does not do all 
the improvements, never works well without some 
sort of fixity of tenure. In America there is no 



152 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOUEED EACES. 

system of tenant-right, but land is cheap, and through- 
out the United States (with perhaps an exception in 
California, on which I need not here dwell) the 
agricultural success of the country is due to small 
farmers owning their own land. I have, then, sought 
with very special interest to ascertain whether the 
black small farmers of the Southern States have to 
any considerable extent purchased their farms, or are 
in the way of doing so. 

I freely admit it may well be that if, in the first 
instance, there had been confiscation of the lands of 
the whites and every enfranchised black had been 
given, what they are said to have expected, twenty- 
five acres and a mule, and left to make the most of it, 
without white assistance or guidance, the result might 
perhaps have been disastrous. The people might pos- 
sibly have relapsed into semi-barbarism and squatted 
down, content to raise a low subsistence from the 
land. That might or might not have been so. But 
there certainly is not the least fear that anything of 
the kind could now result from the acquisition of 
land by the negroes by any fair methods. They have 
become accustomed to independent labour and to 
raising valuable staples for the market. So far from 
neglecting these latter in order to raise alow and lazy 
diet, the common accusation against them now is that 
they cultivate the staples, which bring money, too 
much, to the exclusion of food-supply. I have, heard 
much said of the folly of negro farmers in buying 
Western corn and bacon instead of raising these 
things. This is partly the consequence of the system 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 153 

of cotton-rents, which makes a large cotton cultivation 
obligatory ; bnt also, I dare say, these people know 
by experience what pays them best. At any rate it 
is clear that they are not now inclined to lapse into 
a low style of living ; their fault and difficulty is just 
in the opposite direction. Unfortunately they live 
too freely and generously, and do not save money to 
buy land, and make themselves independent, as they 
might. 

This is the ' general rule, I fear, but not the 
universal practice. Throughout the Southern States 
there are already a good many negroes (though very 
few compared to the whole number) who cultivate 
land of their own, and there are very many more 
who own houses and small patches, especially in the 
vicinity of towns, where they congregated too much 
at first, and where for a time they obtained wages 
which enabled them to set up house. It is generally 
said that most of the negroes who were superior 
servants on the plantations, and above the ordinary 
level in the days of slavery, have now acquired land. 
Though the old proprietors sometimes cling to their 
land when their means do not justify their holding it, 
and in some places there is a feeling against letting 
the land pass into the hands of blacks, there is so 
much land for sale that those who save money need 
have no difficulty in buying it. 

The statistics which most of the States are now be- 
ginning to attempt are very imperfect and unreliable, 
and it is difficult to ascertain how much agricultural 
land is now owned by blacks who have acquired it 



154: THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

since emancipation, and to what extent they are now 
acquiring land. Even when there are any sort of 
figures they include all the property of coloured 
people, and the totals are swelled by the property of 
those free before the war; for instance, of the French 
mulatto Creoles, who are, I believe, found to some 
extent in Charleston and Savannah, as well as in 
New Orleans. But from personal experience and 
inquiries I ascertained that farms owned by emanci- 
pated blacks are certainly found here and there scat- 
tered about the country. The ice has been broken, 
the example set. 

Georgia, which was not long under a black Legis- 
lature, but which early adopted liberal principles of 
white rule, has been held out, in a paragraph which 
went, the round of the papers, as in advance of other 
States in respect of negro property ; but on examining 
the latest official papers I think they somewhat de- 
tract from the grounds of this reputation. Most of 
the property attributed to coloured people consists of 
household furniture, animals, agricultural tools, <fcc. 
They have something more than \\ million dollars 
worth of land out of about 86 millions worth in the 
State. But some of the largest quantities are in 
counties where there are fewest negroes, and can 
hardly be ordinary small farms. I fear, too, from all 
I can learn, that, in these days of cheap cotton, the 
negro-owned lands are not now much increasing. 
Georgia has done nothing special to facilitate the 
acquisition of land by the negroes, and what I could 
gather from personal inquiries rather led me to think 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 155 

that in this respect they were less forward there than 
in the Carolinas. 

In South Carolina more has been clone for them, 
and I think they have done more for themselves than 
in most States. During ' carpet-bag ' rule the State 
Government established a commission to buy estates 
as they came into the market and settle freedmen 
upon them on fair terms of payment, on exactly the 
plan recommended by the last Parliamentary com- 
mittee on the Irish land ; and the plan promised suc- 
cess if it had not been interrupted by accusations of 
fraud and embezzlement against those charged with 
the management, and the fall of the Carpet-bag Gov- 
ernment. A more important and permanent experi- 
ment was made on the lands sold by the United 
States Government for taxes, on the Coast of South 
Carolina. These lands were not given to the negroes, 
but were cut up into ten and twenty acre lots, and 
offered to them for purchase on reasonable terms. 
They were taken up by blacks, who by paying for 
them showed both their ability to help themselves and 
their appreciation of the opportunity offered to them. 
I visited these tracts, and was very greatly interested 
in the independent and self-supporting rural commu- 
nities which I there found. They were under con- 
siderable disadvantages. To begin with, most of 
them were those low-country negroes who have been 
less than the others civilised by contact with the 
white man. Then the lands on which they are settled 
are those which have been more and more falling into 
decadence owing to the decline in long cotton and 



156 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

rice ; so much so that the white proprietors of large 
portions of such lands have suffered them to go out 
of cultivation, or sold them for a song. No other 
money-fetching staple has yet been found for these 
lands, and they are not suitable for short cotton. 
Hence the negroes have carried on the long-cotton 
culture at a very great disadvantage. On the other 
hand, they had this considerable advantage, that the 
able-bodied men can do much to make the two ends 
meet by occasional labour at the ports, and especially 
on the great phosphate beds, which have become a 
large source of industry and wealth to that part of the 
country. The fact that the men readily avail them- 
selves of the opportunity of hard and remunerative 
work and make most admirable labourers at it — as 
good, I am told, as any in the world — is of itself a 
practical answer to any suggestion that they are un- 
willing to work. I have heard it suggested that ne- 
groes are somewhat unreliable workmen for a contin- 
uance, and apt to throw up work and go off when 
they have made a little money and want to attend a 
religious camp-meeting or something of that kind ; 
but there is no question that for a certain time no 
workman can be more steady and effective. At sea- 
sons when no very hard field-work is necessary these 
men leave the women and children to hoe and look 
after the crops, while they earn wages by diving for 
and cleaning the phosphates. It has probably been 
an advantage to them that their land has not been 
such as to enable them to live without working hard, 
men and women too. 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 157 

They have had, too, the advantage of aid from 
friendly Northern and other whites, who do for them 
those things which they cannot do for themselves. 
Some very excellent Northern dealers gin and bny 
their cotton, and white storekeepers have introduced 
among them a wholesome system of ready-money 
payment. They owe very much to the devoted 
Northern and English ladies who have come among 
them to educate their children. It is somewhat 
difficult to reconcile conflicting statements. While 
many or most people attribute to the negro race some 
very serious social and other faults, those who have 
the best opportunity of knowing these land-owning 
negroes represent them as possessed of every virtue ; 
not only those ordinarily conceded to the race, but 
those usually denied — thrift, carefulness, and family 
affection. They are said to save in order to buy 
farms for their sons, and to be altogether a growing 
and progressive community, unremunerative prices 
notwithstanding. Perhaps some allowance must be 
made for a kindly enthusiasm; but also I am con- 
vinced that these people, more happily and inde- 
pendently placed and educated to that craving for 
land which of all things leads to thrift, really are 
much superior to the average of the negro race. I 
could myself see that their homes are better, and that 
they have many horses and light carts and other evi- 
dences of comfort and well-doing. 

I visited some of these people with a coloured 
Congress-man to whom they much look, and was 
struck by the eager interest with which they (espe- 



158 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

cially the women) questioned him about an attack on 
the title to the lands, which has a good deal disturbed 
them. It has been attempted or threatened to ques- 
tion in the Courts the legality of the sales by United 
States authority, under which the land came into the 
hands of the blacks. No doubt it seemed at the time 
that by these forced sales at a cheap rate the lands 
were sadly sacrificed; and, the owners being in re- 
bellious contumacy, the proceeds, such as they were, 
came into the United States Treasury. But, in truth, 
this particular class of land has fallen to so low a 
value, that if the sale had taken place now, it would 
perhaps have scarcely realised more than it did when 
sold after the war. If the money in the Treasury 
were restored to the old owners, justice tempered with 
mercy would be done without disturbance. 

Many proprietors in South Carolina and elsewhere, 
far from thinking, as some of our colonists seem to 
think, that the best way to make sure of hired labour 
is to debar the labouring population from any inde- 
pendent place on the land, have followed a much 
wiser course, and encourage by all means in their 
power the settlement of the negroes on small holdings 
owned by themselves. They have rightly deemed 
that this is the best way to fix a permanent popula- 
tion from which they can draw labour when needed. 
They have therefore laid out parts of their lands in 
small lots, and offered facilities to negroes willing to 
purchase. Once the blacks are settled down in this 
way, it is not difficult to maintain friendly relations 
with them. They are still a good deal dependent on 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 159 

the proprietor of the estate for liberty to graze their 
cattle in the woods, and other little aids. They are 
a good-natured, easily-managed race, and they are 
always ready to accept a good spell of work, for a 
time at least. Proprietors so situated get plenty of 
labour when they want it on the lands they cultivate 
themselves, and for any improvements and operations 
that they may undertake. 

On the whole I am very agreeably surprised to 
find the position of the emancipated blacks so good, 
and the industrial relations between them and the 
whites so little strained and difficult. They are, as a 
rule, good labourers and very tolerable cultivators. 
A gentleman who has had much experience of them, 
and who now labours among them in one of the most 
negro parts of Virginia, in describing their character 
said that one might take about one-third of them to 
be really good and progressive ; another third to be 
so far well-inclined and well-doing that, with good 
management and judicious treatment, they may be 
made good ; and the remaining third to be bad. But 
I am inclined to think, from what I saw and learned 
elsewhere, that this description is more correct of a 
particular tract, in which many of the best and the 
worst of the race congregated during the war, than of 
the country generally ; and that in reality both the 
good, thrifty men who have shown a capacity for in- 
dependence, and the bad, who prefer idleness and 
thieving to work, are far less than this saying im- 
plies, the great majority being in the second category, 
who so far do well that under favourable circumstances 



160 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOUEED EACES. 

they will settle down into an excellent peasantry. It 
seemed to me that the present situation gives very 
good ground of hope, and I am sanguine of a favour- 
able issue. The position of the cultivators is such 
that they may well, with a little kindly aid, become 
independent farmers ; and any man inclined to work 
honestly and well can earn sufficiently good wages. 

All that is now wanted to make the negro a fixed 
and conservative element in American society is to 
give him encouragement to, and facilities for, making 
himself, by his own exertions, a small landowner ; to 
do, in fact, for him what we have sought to do for the 
Irish farmer. Land in America is so much cheaper 
and more abundant, that it would be infinitely easier 
to effect the same object there. I would by no means 
seek to withdraw the whole population from hired 
labour ; on the contrary, the negro in many respects 
is so much at his best in that function, that I should 
look to a large class of labourers remaining ; but I 
am at the same time confident that it would be a 
very great benefit and stability to the country if a 
large number should acquire by thrift an independent 
position as landowning American citizens. 

Supposing things to settle down peaceably, as I 
hope they may, I go so far as to say that, though 
nothing is perfect in this world, the American blacks 
are in a fair way of becoming a comfortable, well-to-do 
population to a degree found in very few countries ; 
a condition which may compare very favourably not 
only with the Indian ryot, the Russian serf, or the 
Irish tenant-farmer, but also with the Dorsetshire 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 161 

labourer. I doubt whether, on the whole, a better 
labouring population, more suited to the climate and 
country in which they find themselves, is anywhere 
to be found. The whites certainly cannot do without 
them ; already the great drawback to the Southern 
States is the want of that great influx of foreign pop- 
ulation which causes the North and West to progress 
in a geometrical ratio. Evidently their true policy is 
to make the most of the excellent population which 
they have, and they quite see it. The blacks, again, 
certainly cannot do without the whites ; their own 
race is not sufficiently advanced to fulfil the functions 
now in the hands of the whites. 

Newly-educated classes, among races hitherto kept 
down, are apt to over-estimate their own acquirements 
and powers ; that is the tendency of the educated 
Hindoos of Calcutta and Bombay, and the same ten- 
dency shows itself among the educated mulattos and 
blacks in America. It is scarcely surprising that they 
should chafe against the social ostracism of all who 
have dark blood in their veins, and should long for 
a Utopia in which educated coloured men own no 
superior ; but I think they are entirely wrong in 
preaching as they now do to their countrymen the 
advantages of emigration to Liberia — which, however, 
they do not themselves practise. Probably there 
could be no more notable example of the want of 
practical ability in these men, than their management 
of the last exodus from Charleston to Liberia. The 
whole thing was a purely coloured movement, and 

the management was in coloured hands. It seems to 
11 



162 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

have been terribly mismanaged ; and the result was 
that, after much loss and suffering on the voyage, 
some of the best of the coloured people who had 
accumulated money enough to set them up most 
comfortably in farms of their own in America, were 
drained of everything they possessed for the expenses 
of the voyage, and landed in a country where they 
could earn as labourers about half what they could 
in their native America, the cost of living being also 
infinitely dearer. My advise would certainly be — to 
the blacks in America, l Stay at home, and make the 
best of an excellent situation,' — to the whites, 'Do 
all you can to keep these people, conciliate them, 
and make the most of them.' I am confident that 
this may and will be done, if only political difficul- 
ties and unsettlements do not mar the prospect, and 
in this view I must now look at the political situ- 
ation. 



THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN THE SOUTH. 

The population of the principal Southern States 
may be roughly stated to be about half black and half 
white ; that is, putting aside Tennessee, Kentucky, 
Missouri, and such intermediate States. Of the first- 
mentioned States the blacks are in a considerable 
majority in South Carolina and one or two more ; in 
the others the whites are somewhat more numerous. 
Before the war the blacks were almost all slaves. I 
think the idea prevalent in Europe was that the 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 1G3 

Southern whites were composed of an aristocracy of 
slave-owning gentlemen, refined and polished, with 
their dependent slave-drivers, and a large number of 
very inferior whites, known as ' mean whites,' ' white 
trash,' and so on, who were rather an encumbrance 
than otherwise. It seems to me that this view is not 
justified. The population was very much divided 
geographically ; there was the great black belt on the 
lower lands, where a few whites ruled over a large 
slave population ; and there was a broad upper belt 
in the hilly country, where the great bulk of the 
population was white, mostly small farmers owning 
their land. No doubt education was much more 
backward in the South than in the North, and the 
people were probably less pushing ; but I have been 
very favourably impressed by these Southern whites, 
many of whom are of Scotch-Irish (i. <?., Northern 
Presbyterian Irish) or Highland Scotch blood ; they 
seemed to be a handsome, steady, industrious people ; 
and if somewhat primitive in their ways, and humble 
in the character of their houses and belongings, they 
are curiously self-supporting and independent of the 
outer world ; they raise their own food, and to this 
day their wives weave their clothes from their own 
wool and cotton; and, if not rich, they have few 
wants. There is, no doubt, in all these Southern 
States a large intermediate zone in which white and 
black are much intermixed ; but even there they are 
a good deal aggregated in patchwork fashion, the 
general rule apparently being that the rich slave- 
owners have occupied the best lands, and the poorer 



164 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

independent whites the poorer lands, especially much 
of what are called ' pine barrens,' though they are 
not so barren after alL A notable population in this 
latter country is the settlement of Scotch Highlanders 
who came over after ' the '45,' Flora Macdonald being 
one of them. I am told that not only do they speak 
Gaelic to this day, but the few black slaves they had 
among them spoke Gaelic too. In truth, then, I 
gather that the population of very inferior whites 
without property never was very large. There were 
very many without slave property, but most had 
more or less land. The chief justification for attri- 
buting lowness and meanness to the poorer whites 
seems to be, that some of the inferior central tracts 
are occupied by a set of people said to be descended 
from the convicts sent out in former days, and to 
this day very unthrifty. They are called Sandhillers 
in South Carolina, and really do seem to be an infe- 
rior people. 

The changes favouring small farmers have tended 
to improve on the whole the condition of those 
Southern whites who have any sort of property, the 
losses of the war and the bad times notwithstanding ; 
but mere labourers, probably, feel the competition of 
free black labour more than formerly. I saw at 
places black and white labourers working together 
at the same work, and on the same wages, in a way 
which, to our Indian ideas of the dignity of the white 
race, is somewhat distressing. But I did not detect 
anything specially bad or degraded about these whites ; 
and in the Southern cotton mills (very prosperous 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 1G5 

aud growing establishments), where the whites have 
a monopoly of the employment, they are very good 
workers, the women especially being, apparently, as 
good as anywhere — the men not so good. 

The real weakness of the Southern party during 
the war was neither any want of gallantry on the 
part of the slave-owning classes, nor any active disaf- 
fection on the part of the blacks, but the entire want 
of sympathy for and zeal in the war on the part of 
the majority of the white population owning no 
slaves, who considered it a slave-owners' war for the 
maintenance of slavery. It is surprising to find how 
many, even of the upper classes, say that they were 
against secession and war, and only ' went with their 
State' when war was inevitable; but having gone 
into it, the whole of that class, and all connected 
with them — professional men, doctors, lawyers, and 
every one else — went into it with a will, and sus- 
tained losses such as, perhaps, no civilised people ever 
bore before. So long as they were successful there 
was little active opposition by the poorer whites ; but 
the conscription and other burdens to support a slave- 
owners' war became very severe, the whites not in- 
terested in that cause became recalcitrant, some went 
into active opposition ; and at last it was more deser- 
tion and disunion than anything else that brought 
about the final overthrow. 

After the war the results of the victory were 
summed up in the three famous amendments to the 
Constitution known as the 13th, 14th, and 15th, com- 
prising the abolition of slavery, equal privileges for 



106 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

all citizens, and the ' right of all citizens to vote not 
to be denied or abridged in any State on account of 
race, colour, or previous condition of servitude.' The 
great struggle was over this last, or 15th amendment, 
and it was only forced on the Southern States by ex- 
treme compulsion. That is, in fact, still the bone of 
contention. At the first election under the new Con- 
stitution many of the whites were still under political 
disabilities on account of rebellion, and in several 
States the leaders of the lately rebellious whites deli- 
berately counselled abstinence from political affairs 
as a sort of protest. Consequently, in most places, 
the black vote, under the guidance of the Northern 
politicians known as Carpet-baggers, carried the day 
entirely. The result was that a very large number 
of ignorant negroes were sent to the State Legisla- 
tures ; and many of the Carpet-baggers being corrupt 
adventurers, there was much corruption and scandal. 
This has brought about a union among the Southern 
whites, for those who were unwilling to fight for 
slavery are by no means willing to be ruled by the 
blacks, or even very freely to admit their equality ; 
and so it has happened that parties in the South are 
ranged into black and white much more than ever 
they were before. 

In most States the white leaders soon came to 
their senses, and perceived, what might have been 
seen from the first, that a population which had half 
the numbers, and all the property, influence, and edu- 
cation, must prevail over the black half, possessed of 
none of these advantages, and in many respects de- 



BLACK AND WHITE IK THE SOUTHEKN STATES. 

pendent on the propertied classes. They therefore 
very early returned to the electoral charge, and by 
no very unfair means regained possession of most of 
the State Governments and the control of the State 
Legislatures. Fortunately, taught by adversity, the 
white leaders so restored to power took a reasonable 
and moderate course, honestly accepting the situation 
and the great constitutional amendments. In these 
States it is a great gain that, in order to introduce 
certain amendments of a moderate character, the 
people, under white leadership, have recently passed 
revised editions of their State constitutions (embody- 
ing the war amendments), which no one can gainsay as 
not being real and voluntary ; whereas the first con- 
stitutions imposed after the war were certainly the 
work of very one-sided conventions, acting under the 
protection of United States bayonets. Besides the 
management of their own States, the white party 
have been more and more gaining the great majority 
of the Southern seats in the United States Congress, 
and things have been more and more tending to that 
democratic 'Solid South' of which we have lately 
heard so much. In some of the States this was in- 
evitable, and I doubt if it can be said that in most 
cases any very unfair means have been used to great 
excess. When I left the States several of the recent 
elections were still disputed ; but I believe there is 
no doubt that in Virginia and North Carolina two or 
three Republican members have been returned for 
the districts in which the black vote is in a very 
overwhelming majority; and that is probably as 



THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOUKED RACES. 

much as could be expected under the circumstances. 
In Georgia no Republican Congressmen were elected ; 
but several 'independent' Democrats have been re- 
turned under circumstances which tend much to 
ensure fair dealing towards the blacks, inasmuch as, 
the whites being divided, the black vote has been 
important. The Independents justify their separa- 
tion from the regulars of their party by denouncing 
the evils and jobbery of the £ caucus' system; and 
they go on to say that it was a sort of bargain with 
the blacks that if they quietly yielded the reins of 
power to the whites, they should be fairly treated, 
and their right to vote should be honestly recognised ; 
whereas if the whole thing is settled in white caucus, 
from which the blacks are excluded, they are practi- 
cally disfranchised. 

As regards, then, what I may call the moderate 
States, I see no ground for taking a gloomy view of 
the situation. Perhaps, as a foreigner writing on the 
other side of the Atlantic, I may be permitted to say 
(what might, if I were nearer, seem presumptuous) 
that the men who, in these States, as governors now 
wield the large powers entrusted to the executive in 
America, seemed to be very able, sound, moderate 
men, from whose judgment and discretion I should 
expect much benefit. My only doubt is as regards 
one constitutional amendment which most of these 
States have adopted. I do not seriously quarrel witr 
that which, as with us, deprives of the franchise those 
who have not paid their taxes. But it must be fairly 
worked. There is generally a direct poll-tax, jus- 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 169 

titled by its application to popular education, of 
which the masses are so much in need ; and there is a 
question of a tax on dogs, the slaves of the ex-slaves. 
If any laxity is shown in the collection of taxes from 
poor and ignorant people about election-time, or the 
date of payment is put near election-day, very many 
may be disfranchised, who must soon pay the money 
nevertheless. The provision in the new Constitution 
which I most fear is that which permanently dis- 
franchises all who are convicted of crime, unless the 
governor remits the sentence. In principle excejDtion 
can hardly be taken to this ; but I have some doubt 
whether, in the matter of justice, the negroes are 
quite secure of fair play ; and it is somewhat danger- 
ous if a nearly balanced constituency may be affected 
by a rigorous administration of the criminal laws. 
It is certain that the prison populations are composed 
of blacks in a proportion greater than the general 
population to an overwhelming degree. Whatever 
the degree of their criminality, there is a disposition 
to cure it by a strictness in penal management which 
requires watching, seeing how much the administra- 
tion of justice is now in the hands of the whites. The 
magistrates and judges are either elected or nominated 
by the white rulers. English law is the basis of most 
American institutions, and the English law regulating 
the selection of juries has always been very lax. I 
found that in the Southern States there is little regard 
to the principle of selecting de medietate linguce in 
cases between black and white. Very few blacks are 
admitted on juries; in Virginia, I believe, none at all. 



170 THE MANAGEMENT OE COLOURED RACES. 

Then, as regards punishment, flogging is very 
freely used in Virginia ; but further South the 
system of chain-gangs, — i.e., extra-mural labour — is 
universal. The convicts are not only employed on 
public works, railways, and the like, but are very 
usually let out to private speculators, and they are 
made a source of profit instead of an expense. It 
comes simply to this, that the punishment for crime 
is reduction to the old state of slavery in a form not 
very widely differing from the old form. I am told 
that the people most often convicted and sent to the 
chain-gang are the undisciplined young negroes who 
have grown up since the days of slavery. I have even 
heard it said by reliable men that they employ no 
man so readily as one who has come out of the chain- 
gang, because he has there learnt discipline. 

In nothing have I encountered greater discre- 
pancies of statement than in regard to the criminality 
of negroes. Many people represent them as most 
inveterate thieves, whom nothing but severity will 
reform. Others say they have lived among them for 
years and never had occasion to lock a door ; and of 
this last I have had personal experience. I tried very 
hard to sift the truth, and I believe it to be this. 
The negro is not much given to violent, and very 
little to what I may call vicious, crime. In this re- 
spect he really stands above most other races. But 
he has brought from slavery times a sort of childish 
want of respect for property in certain things. It is 
hardly deemed a theft, but merely a misconduct, when 
a child is caught taking a spoonful of jam. A slave 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 171 

used, it is said, to reason thus : ' I am my master's, so 
is this chicken. If I catch and eat the chicken I take 
nothing from my master.' These things depended 
much on individual management. So it is now ; in 
well-managed establishments and on well-adminis- 
tered estates things go on smoothly enough, but in 
many places there is a good deal of disposition to 
petty picking and stealing, which needs to be checked 
by moderate measures. I gather, however, that some 
things thought very venial in slave times are now 
severely dealt with. On the whole I am inclined to 
think that there is some foundation for the assertion 
sometimes put forward by friends of the blacks, that 
a much harder justice is dealt to one class than 
to another; that for all the outrages and murders 
committed by the whites in the troubled years after 
the war very little condign punishment has been ex- 
ecuted, while justice and something more is done 
on the blacks. One thing did astonish me during my 
tour, and that is, to find how much ' Jucl^e Lvnch ' 
survives, especially when the accused are blacks. I 
imagined he was a thing of the past, but I found that 
several lynching cases of atrocity occurred before I had 
been many weeks in the States ; that is, hanging by 
popular movement without the intervention of judge 
and jury. This is generally the case when there is 
any alleged assault of any kind by a black on a white 
woman. The blacks are popularly said to be prone 
to that kind of crime ; with what justice I cannot 
say. An experienced judge told me he had known 
many accused and many hanged, but none convicted 



172 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

on trial. The mere suggestion that a black man 
would like to do something of the kind if he could 
seems enough to hang him. 

Hitherto I have principally spoken of those States 
which I have called l moderate/ but there are two or 
three others where moderate counsels have not pre- 
vailed, and where the difficulties are much greater. 
Happily they are but a small minority. My per- 
sonal inquiries were limited to South Carolina ; but, 
known as it is as the ' Petrel State] there is probably 
no more typical instance of the difficulties of reconstruc- 
tion. So I shall confine myself to stating the case 
as I have gathered it in connection with that State. 

Partly owing to the greater numerical preponde- 
rance of the blacks, and partly to the less disposition 
of the whites to accept measures of moderation and 
compromise, the black predominance in the Legisla- 
ture and the Carpet-bag rule were carried further and 
lasted much longer in South Carolina than in the 
surrounding States. The great majority of the 
legislators were blacks ; and though some of them 
were fair representative men, with some education, no 
doubt most of them were absurdly ignorant and out 
of place, and there was some colour for the nickname 
of ' the Monkey House,' which their enemies applied 
to the Assembly. They, however, indulged in no 
violent class-legislation, but were very completely 
guided by the white men who had obtained the 
government — principally Northern Carpet-baggers. 
Whatever violence and disturbance there was (and 
there was a good deal), was not on the .part of the 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 173 

black majority, but of the white minority, who, in- 
stead of trying constitutional methods to regain 
power, preferred Ku Klux organisations and such 
violent methods, committing many murders and 
creating much terror. The strong ami of the United 
States authority was, however, used to aid in putting 
down the Ku Klux, and by the time the elections of 
1876 approached the whites had begun to see that 
with two-fifths of the population and all the property, 
and much physical and moral force, it was easier to 
win elections than to continue the contest by uncon- 
stitutional means. Accordingly, in 1876 the whites 
got the best of it in the elections for the State Legis- 
lature, though three black men were still sent to 
Congress. As regards the very important question 
of the election of State Governor, and the consequent 
control of the Executive, the election was disputed 
between Chamberlain, the former Carpet-bag Gover- 
nor, and Wade Hampton, the very popular Demo- 
crat, who was put up on moderate and compromise 
principles, and from whose moderation and concili- 
ation much was expected. As we know in regard to 
a more important election and subordinate issues 
arising out -of it, there is an extreme difficulty in 
deciding disputes of this kind in the United States. 
On this occasion no mode of settlement was arrived 
at, and in the beginning of 1877 two rival govern- 
ments were for months actually face to face, each 
claiming to exercise the executive function. That the 
question was not settled by an appeal to arms was 
due partly to a certain forbearance, and partly to the 



174 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

presence of United States troops ; but these latter 
were powerless to settle the matter, and a good deal 
of disturbance took place under their noses which 
they could not put a stop to. It was at this time 
that President Hayes decided to withdraw the garri- 
sons which had hitherto been posted in the Southern 
States, and to give the moderate Southern politicians, 
who had everywhere come to the front, a fair chance 
of carrying out in good faith the constitutional 
amendments, and bringing about a moral and politi- 
cal instead of a mere military restoration of the 
Union. He was probably well aware that the result 
must be to restore the Southern Democrats to power, 
and deliberately preferred to let South Carolina pass 
under the government of the moderate Wade Hamp- 
ton, rather than abet a continuance of the struggle. 
Certainly that was the immediate effect of the with- 
drawal of the troops. I believe the question never 
was formally decided at all ; but as soon as the 
United States troops went, the Democrats being 
evidently the strongest physically, the other party 
collapsed, and Wade Hampton quietly assumed the 
government without further dispute. 

It is marvellous, under the circumstances, that 
there has been so little of armed collision in the 
Southern States; for, after all, the so-called United 
States garrisons were mere detachments at a few 
places, carrying with them the moral power of the 
United States Government, but nothing more. Very 
many of the blacks were armed and taught to fight 
during the war. There has been no attempt at any 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 175 

general disarmament of the Southern States ; on the 
contrary, the Constitution insures to all citizens the 
right to possess arms, and all are entitled to serve, if 
they will, in the National Militia of each State. At 
one time arms were very freely distributed, and very 
large numbers of the blacks belonged to the popular 
military force which it sought to establish under the 
name of c National Guards ; ' but the regiments so 
formed were very ragged and irregular indeed, and 
on the ground (fairly enough established) of total 
inefficiency their arms were taken from them, and 
the State-armed Militia was confined to the companies 
which came up to a moderate standard of efficiency — 
a practice consonant enough with that of other States 
of the Union. The negroes have a good deal of 
military zeal, and in many of the larger towns they 
have very creditable Volunteer Militia companies ; 
sometimes, I am told, a good deal better drilled and 
more efficient than the white companies ; but they 
are required to provide their own uniforms and incur 
expenses which the rural negroes cannot afford. And 
so it happens that the black Militia are, on the whole, 
small in number compared with the whites. More- 
over, in some States — and South Carolina is one of 
them — the whites have % rifle clubs, outside and be- 
yond the recognised and inspected Militia, which 
constitute, in fact, a sort of armed political organisa- 
tion. Between Militia and rifle clabs and volunteer 
artillery they can always make a show of armed force, 
and indulge in an amount of cannon-firing and so on 
which is not encouraging to opponents of weak nerves. 



176 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

For much that was done in troubled times, and 
much that has been done since (to which I shall 
come presently), the excuse is, that the Carpet-bag 
rule was so utterly detestable, wicked, and impossible 
that it was an absolute necessity to get rid of it by 
fair means or foul. I have, then, sought to learn 
what were the terrible things suffered under this rule. 
There seems to be a general agreement that very great 
abuses did exist under it, and before I went South I 
certainly expected to find that the Southern States 
had been for a time a sort of Pandemonium in which 
a white man could hardly live. Yet it certainly was 
not so. I have said that the Republican State Gov- 
ernments made no attack on the rights of property, 
and I have been able to discuss the whole labour 
and land question without having occasion to allude 
to political events as a very disturbing influence. 
It is in truth marvellous how well the parties to 
industrial questions were able to settle them while 
there was so great political unsettlement. When I 
went to South Carolina I thought that there at least 
I must find great social disturbances ; and in South 
Carolina I went to the county of Beaufort, the 
blackest part of the State in point of population, and 
.that in which black rule has been most complete and 
has lasted longest. It has the reputation of being a 
sort of black paradise, a,nd,perco?itrtiJ. rather expected 
a sort of white hell. There I thought I should see a 
rough Liberia, where the blacks ruled roughshod over 
the whites. To my great surprise I found exactly 
the contrary. At no place that I have seen are the 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 177 

relations of the two races better and more peaceable. 
It is true that many of the whites have suffered very 
greatly from the war, and from the tax-sales by 
United States authority to which I have before 
alluded, and I am afraid that there are numerous 
cases of poverty and sad reverse of fortune among 
them; but that comes of the war which is past. 
Those whose fortunes or professions have in any 
degree survived have nothing serious to complain of. 
The town of Beaufort is a f avourite summer resort for 
white families from the interior. All the best houses 
are in the occupation of the whites — almost all the 
trades, professions, and leading occupations. White 
girls go about as freely and pleasantly as if no black 
had ever been in power. Here the blacks still 
control the elections and send their representatives 
to the State Assembly; but though they elect to 
the county and municipal offices they by no means 
elect blacks only. Many whites hold office, and I 
heard no complaint of colour difficulties in the local 
administration. The country about is partly the 
land on which black proprietor-farmers have been 
settled, with white traders, teachers, &c, in the suc- 
cessful manner which I have already described; 
partly similar lands of white proprietors who let them 
out and manage amicably with a black tenantry ; 
partly rice plantations, which, on account of the 
works of protection and irrigation required, are 
worked in large farms by hired labour ; partly the 
land and water in which the phosphates before al- 
luded to are found ; partly forest and sandhills ; but 
12 



178 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

whatever the tenures and circumstances, I say em- 
phatically that nowhere are the relations between 
blacks and whites better, and nowhere does a travel- 
ler see fewer signs that political difficulties have been 
fatal to settlement 

' Well, then,' I have gone on to ask, l did the 
black Legislatures make bad laws ? ' My informants 
could not say that they did. In truth, though many 
of the Carpet-baggers were in some sense the scum of 
the Northern armies, the leading spirits among them 
seem to have been men of decided education and 
ability, and the work done under their direction, and 
a good deal adapted from Northern models, is not at 
all below the average of American State legislation. 
What, then, is the practical evil of which complaint 
is made ? The answer is summed up in the one 
word l corruption.' It is alleged that under Carpet- 
bag rule the most monstrous and inconceivable 
corruption was all but universal, and that not only 
were the available public funds made away with, but 
the States were burdened with terrible debts by those 
who pretended to represent them, so as to have 
brought them to the brink of insolvency. I believe 
there can be no doubt at all that a great deal of 
corruption did prevail — much more than the ordinary 
measure of American corruption; it was inevitable 
that it should be so under the circumstances, but to 
what degree it was so, it is very difficult to tell. 
The fact is there is no denying that corruption does 
to some degree exist in American politics, and is not 
confined to the South. If we are to believe the 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 179 

eoninion language of Americans themselves, and 
have regard to their opinions of the motives and 
character of i politicians,' their every-day accusations, 
and the staple of their caricatures and farces, this 
corruption must be very widespread indeed. On the 
other hand, I am inclined to suppose that such ac- 
cusations are the ordinary form of throwing dirt at 
any man who is in disgrace, and that while some are 
true a good many are not well-founded. Of course I 
am not qualified to speak with any confidence, but 
the general impression I have brought away is, that, 
as the leading men in America seem to be constantly 
oscillating between high political office and the 
management of railways, life insurance companies, 
and other joint-stock undertakings, many of them 
have carried into politics what I may call joint-stock 
morals, and are no better and no worse than our own 
directors. All the Carpet-bag Governors are, as a 
matter of course, accused of the grossest personal 
corruption; and as soon as they fall from power it is 
almost a necessity that they should fly from criminal 
prosecutions instituted in the local courts under 
circumstances which give little security for a fair 
trial. Several Democrats of high position in Georgia 
have assured me they believe that the Xorthern 
gentleman of good antecedents, who was Governor 
there, was innocent of the things of which he was 
accused ; in fact, I believe he came back, stood his 
trial, and was acquitted. In South Carolina I was 
given the report of the Committee, of Investigation 
disclosing terrible things, and said to be most 



180 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

impartial and conclusive. The general result was to 
leave on one's mind the belief that undoubtedly a 
very great deal of pilfering and corruption had gone 
on, but the tone of the report was far too much that 
of an indictment, rather than of a judgment, to 
satisfy me that it could be safely accepted in block. 
The Governor of Massachusetts has refused to render 
up the ex-Governor, who asserts his innocence and 
his readiness to stand his trial if a fair trial be 
assured. As regards the State debts, I believe those 
shown to be fraudulent and unjustifiable have been 
repudiated long ago ; and the Southern States having 
also had the advantage of writing off all debts 
incurred during the war, I understand that by far 
the greater portion of their existing debts were 
incurred before the war. The debts which Virginia 
and North Carolina find it necessary to ' adjust ' 
were, I am told, very largely incurred for somewhat 
reckless subventions to railways and other public 
works. But the railways at any rate exist, and are 
the making of the country. In South Carolina the 
whole debt is not large — only, I think, about one and 
a half millions sterling, all told. 

On the whole, then, I am inclined to believe that 
the period of Carpet-bag rule was rather a scandal 
than a very permanent injury. The black men used 
their victory with moderation, although the women 
were sometimes dangerous, and there was more pilfer- 
ing than plunder on a scale permanently to cripple 
the State. 

To return to the history of South Carolina. After 



BLACK ANT> WHITE IN" THE SOUTHERN STATES. 181 

the withdrawal of the United States troops the Carpet- 
baggers were entirely routed and put to flight, and 
Wade Hampton assumed the undisputed government. 
He has certainly had much success. His party claim 
(I believe with justice) that he has done much to re-, 
store the finances, promote education, and protect 
blacks and whites in the exercise of peaceful callings. 
As regards political matters, his policy amounts, I 
think, to this ; — it is in effect said to the blacks : ' If 
you will accept the present regime, follow us, and 
vote Democratic; we will receive you, cherish you, 
and ,give you a reasonable share of representation, 
local office, <kc. ; but there shall be nothing for those 
who persist in voting Republican. 1 Some of them 
accept these terms, but to vote Democratic is the one 
thing which the great majority will not do. They 
may be on excellent terms with white men with whom 
they have relations, will follow them and be guided 
by them in everything else, but they have sufficient 
independence to hold out on that point of voting, 
even when they have lost their white leaders and are 
quite left to themselves. They know that they owe 
their freedom to the Republicans, and it is to them a 
sort of religion to vote Republican. I think it was 
in Georgia (where they have not held out so stoutly) 
that, talking to a small black farmer, an ex-slave, as 
to the situation, I asked him about the black vote. 
' Well,' he said, ' some wote straight, and some don't ; 
some is 'suaded and some is paid, but I wote accord- 
ing to my principles, and my principles is Repub- 
lican.' In South Carolina that is the view of the 



182 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

great body of the blacks, as the Democrats fully 
admit. Stories are told of personal dependants of the 
present Governor who owe everything to him and 
would do anything else in the world for him, but who 
will yet openly vote against him. Such, then, was the 
state of things when the elections of November 1878 
came on. 

It seemed to be well known beforehand that the 
Democrats were determined to win everything in the 
South. It was said to be a necessity finally to eman- 
cipate all the States from the scandal of black and 
Carpet-bag rule, and so far one could not but sympa- 
thise with the feeling ; but so much had been already 
achieved, and there was not the least risk of a reac- 
tion. On the contrary, the power of the native whites 
was thoroughly re-established. In South Carolina 
Wade Hampton's re-election was not opposed, and 
there was no question whatever that by moderate 
means the Democrats could retain a very decided ma- 
jority in the State Legislature. But they were not 
content with this ; they aimed at an absolute posses- 
sion of everything, leaving no representation to their 
opponents at all, and especially at a ' solid South,' 
in the United States Congress. l They are determined 
to win,' I was told. ' They will get the votes by fair 
means, if they can ; and if not I am sorry to say they 
will steal 'em. 7 And that is just what was done in 
South Carolina. 

To understand what took place we must look at 
the election law prevailing in the United States. It 
seems to me that if the law had been designed to fa- 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHEEN STATES. 183 

cilitate fraud, make detection difficult, and render the 
settlement of disputed elections impossible, it could 
not have been more skilfully devised. There is some- 
thing to be said for open voting and something for a 
well-managed ballot, but the pretended ballot of the 
United States seems to combine all the evils of both 
systems. It may be just possible for an independent 
man connected with no party, who manages the thing 
skilfully, to conceal his vote ; but if he consents to 
make it known, there can be, and in practice there is, 
no secrecy whatever. There are no official ballot- 
papers, numbered and checked, so as to be after- 
wards traced, as with us ; every man may deposit in 
the box any ballot-paper he chooses, written or printed 
in whatever form he chooses. In practice voters use 
papers in a particular form supplied by their own 
party, so that there can be no mistake which way 
they vote. There being no means of identifying the 
papers so cast, everything depends on the honesty 
and fair dealing of those who have the official man- 
agement of the polls. In all things the executive 
Government has much greater power in America 
than with us, and the party which has the executive 
power has also the control of the ballot-boxes. They 
appoint returning boards and election managers at 
each polling-place, who, when party spirit runs high, 
are in the interest of the dominant majority. This 
was carried to an excess in South Carolina during; 
the recent elections. The United States officers 
are entitled to take certain precautions to see that the 
United States election law is fairly carried out, but 



184 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

they could only be present at the principal places, and 
sent very subordinate agents to the other polling- 
places, where they were hustled and treated with no 
respect whatever. Under these conditions the elec- 
tions were held in South Carolina. 

There is a remarkable frankness and openness in 
speaking of the way in which things were managed, 
and I believe I violate no confidences, because there 
was no whispering or confidence about it. There 
was not a very great amount of violence or intimi- 
dation. Some Republican meetings were violently 
interfered with before the election, and on the day 
of the election there was at some places a certain 
amount of galloping about, firing guns, and such-like 
demonstration by men in red shirts ; but any intimi- 
dation used was rather moral than physical. In all 
districts where the parties in any degree approach 
equality perhaps there would be no very strong 
grounds for disputing the victory of the Democrats. 
It is in the lower districts, where the Republicans are 
admittedly in an immense majority, that great Dem- 
ocratic majorities were obtained by the simple pro- 
cess of what is called ' stuffing the ballot-boxes.' 
For this purpose the Democrats used ballot-papers of 
the thinnest possible tissue-paper, such that a number 
of them can be packed inside of one larger paper and 
shaken out as they are dropped into the box. These 
papers were freely handed about ; they were shown 
to me, and I brought away specimens of them. I 
never heard a suggestion that these extraordinary 
little gossamer-web things were designed for any 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 185 

other purpose than that of fraud. Of course the 
result of such a system was that there were many 
more ballot-papers in the "box than voters. At one 
place in the Charleston district, where not above one 
thousand persons voted, there were found, I believe, 
three thousand live hundred papers in the box. In 
such case the practice (whether justified by law or 
not, I know not) is that the election managers blind- 
fold a man, who draws out and destroys the number 
of papers in excess of the voters. Of course he takes 
care to draw out the thick papers of the opposite 
party, and to leave in the thin papers of his own 
party ; so when the process is completed the Demo- 
crats are found to be in a great majority, and the 
return is so made by the returning board. There are 
some other grounds of complaint. In some of the 
black districts the number of polling-places has been 
so reduced that it is impossible for all who wish to 
poll to do so in the time allowed. At one or two 
places the ballot-boxes were stolen and carried off. 
At one place of which I have personal knowledge the 
appointed election managers simply kept out of the 
way, and had no poll at all. Hundreds of blacks 
who came to vote were told they must go elsewhere, 
when it was too late to do so. In short, I have no 
hesitation in saying, as matter within my own knowl- 
edge, that, if these elections had taken place in 
England, there were irregularities which must have 
vitiated them before an election judge a hundred 
times over. 

The result of these elections was that, except in 



186 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOUEED EACES. 

the single county of Beaufort, not one Republican or 
Independent was returned to the State Legislature ; 
nor, I believe, was a single office-bearer of those per- 
suasions elected. The dominant party took every- 
thing, and the Republican members of Congress were 
all ejected. South Carolina returns a solid Demo- 
cratic representation to the next Congress. 

I have throughout, on the spot, as I do now, ex- 
pressed the opinion that there is no excuse whatever 
for the lengths to which the triumph of the Demo- 
crats has been pushed. Granting that they were 
fairly justified in vigorous measures to give them the 
control of the Government and Legislature, and that 
they were in a position thus to obtain a good working 
majority, there could be no reason for unfairly de- 
priving their opponents of a certain representation. 
It was bad policy, too, for the things that have been 
done have roused the indignation of the North, and 
it is believed that the somewhat unexpected Republi- 
can successes in the North were in great degree due 
to the feeling excited by unfair attempts to make a 
solid South. Perhaps, for the time, it may not be a 
matter of the very first importance whether the 
Democrats have only a good majority in the Southern 
State Legislatures, or almost the whole representa- 
tion ; but in the present state of parties in Congress 
two or three seats, or say, including Louisiana and 
Florida, half a' dozen seats, won by extreme and pal- 
pable irregularities and fraud, make a great differ- 
ence ; and the question of these elections raises very 
large and difficult issues. Not only are nearly- 



BLACK AND WHITE IX THE SOUTHERN STATES. 187 

balanced parties very much affected, but, in case of a 
struggle over the next Presidential election, these 
votes might just turn the scale; and the question 
whether there is any remedy practically available to 
redress wrongs which are, I may almost say, admitted, 
puts in issue the wider question whether the loth 
Amendment of the United States Constitution, se- 
curing equal electoral rights to the blacks, is really 
to be enforced, or whether it may be set aside in prac- 
tice by the action of individual States. Is, in fact, 
the settlement at the end of the war to be maintained 
or surrendered ? The excuse made by the Southern 
whites for their proceedings is, that throughout the 
United States elections are not pure and free from 
fraud ; that there has been as much of it in New 
York as in the South; that the laws admitting of 
such things were made by their enemies to crush 
them ; that the Presidency was ' stolen ' from them 
by fraud ; and that they are justified in reprisals. I 
have no doubt that it is an absolute necessity that 
the election laws should be improved. But besides 
this there is need of a final laying of the issue 
between North and South, depending on a due 
execution of the war settlement. To see how this 
stands we must glance at the relations between the 
United States and the States of the Union as things 
now exist. 

When the United States Constitution was origi- 
nally framed, after the Revolutionary "War, there was 
much need of union and much necessity for taxation, 
for which it provided the means. But as time passed 



188 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

and the condition of the States rose with peace and 
prosperity, the external customs revenue sufficed, 
and more than sufficed, for all common purposes. 
No internal revenue was raised for the general 
government, and scarcely any interference of any 
kind was exercised. We, who are accustomed to 
speak of the United States as one country, hardly 
realise how entirely as respects internal affairs the 
Union was, and for most purposes still is, not one 
country, but a league of many countries. The do- 
mestic administration is peculiar to each State, and 
under no common control whatever. The United 
States Courts of the original Constitution were few, 
and confined in practice to larger matters. As I 
heard a Democratic orator say (with truth, I believe), 
4 You hardly knew that there was a United States 
Government, except when you went to the Post-office 
for your letters.' 

After the war the clauses providing for the aboli- 
tion of slavery and the equality of race and class were 
the only amendments which it was necessary to in- 
troduce into the Constitution; but, nevertheless, 
there was in addition a very great practical change 
carried out under provisions of the old Constitution, 
which had long been almost dormant. The great 
debt rendered necessary a heavy taxation, and an 
entirely new system of internal revenue was put in 
force ; whisky, tobacco, and some other things being 
subjected to a heavy excise duty to the general 
Government, which rendered necessary a strong 
executive control by United States officers in every 



BLACK AND WHITE IX THE SOUTHERN STATES. 189 

corner of the States. Botli revenue questions and 
many other questions raised by the events of the war 
necessitated a great extension of the United States 
Courts, and brought them, as it were, to every mail's 
door. These, and some other changes, were common 
to all the States. In the South there was further re- 
quired some measure of precaution to give effect to 
the changes affecting the blacks. Besides the mili- 
tary occupation for a time, the central Legislature 
was empowered to pass laws to give effect to the new 
electoral equality, and to station officers to watch the 
working of those laws. Under these laws the central 
authority has in theory power to deal with the elec- 
tion abuses which I have mentioned ; but in practice 
it is not so easy. Like our Parliament, Congress can 
deal with disputed elections to its own body; and 
when the new Congress meets, some months hence, 
some of these elections will no doubt be brought be- 
fore it; bat it will require a great exercise of virtue 
on the part of Democratic members to do a justice 
which will convert their narrow majority into a nar- 
row minority. Meantime the President may pro- 
secute in the United States Courts those who have 
broken the election laws. But the first difficulty 
is that, as such actions will be resisted by every 
means, the conduct of the prosecutions will be very 
expensive ; and they cannot be carried through with- 
out an appropriation for the purpose by a House in 
which the Democrats have the majority. Then the 
local people resist in another way : as fast as prose- 
cutions are instituted the United States subordinate 



190 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

officers are arrested and dragged before the local State 
magistrates on all sorts of charges ; and the witnesses 
for the prosecution are arrested for perjury and com- 
mitted for trial before the local State Courts. The 
President is much urged to vigorous and decisive ac- 
tion ; but his position is very difficult. Apparently 
a Committee of Congress to inquire into electoral 
abuses has been appointed, but *the terms of reference 
seem to be so wide that it may be difficult to bring 
it to a practical issue. 

There never can be peace, quiet, and safety in the 
United States till a mode of settling disputed elec- 
tions is arranged, and this question of the black vote 
is definitely laid at rest. There is a curious cross of 
opinion and interest on this latter question. Before 
the war, the blacks having no votes, the electoral 
representation of the South was diminished on that 
ground. Since all have had votes the South has a 
full representation according to population, and thus 
sends many more members to Congress than ever it 
did before; and so, an almost solid South having 
been returned on the Democratic side, it curiously 
happens that the very measure of enfranchising the 
negroes, which was expected to have an opposite 
effect, has now given the Southern Democrats greatly 
increased power. Seeing this, and the difficulty of 
dealing with the question, some of the Northerners 
have inclined to settle the matter by disfranchising 
the blacks and diminishing the representation in pro- 
portion ; but this the Southerners stoutly resist. They 
say, ' You gave the blacks votes, and now they shall 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES, 191 

not be deprived of them.' In truth, disfranchisement- 
cannot now be the remedy. I venture to agree with 
those thoughtful Northern statesmen who say that, 
whatever temporary inconveniences may attend the 
policy, deliberately adopted, it must be adhered to ; 
for, they say, under our political system the only 
security that every class shall be fairly treated is, 
that they should haVe votes. They instance the 
case of the Chinese in California, who, in their view, 
are unfairly treated because they have no votes. A 
man, they say, who has a vote, even if he carries no 
weight now, is sure to be courted by some party 
sooner or later. The whites must have divisions 
among themselves, and then they will be civil to the 
blacks. I think the experience of our own Colonies 
is entirely in favour of this view. Unrepresented 
blacks, and other unrepresented classes, are always 
liable to be treated unfairly under labour laws, va- 
grant laws, and revenue laws. I am told that in the 
interval between the war and the adoption of the 
black-vote clause of the Constitution some of the 
Southern Legislatures showed a disposition to adopt 
similar laws ; and though they now are honestly free 
from such ideas, such proposals would probably spring 
up again if the blacks were not represented. 

It must be remembered that the Constitution of 
the United States imposes no obligation whatever to 
give universal suffrage to all blacks ; all that is re- 
quired is that there shall be the same rule for black 
and white. The Southern States are perfectly at 
liberty to impose any general property qualification, 



192 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

household qualification, or anything else they please 
— they might very well impose an education qualifi- 
cation such as exists in Massachusetts to this day. 
With this exception, in Massachusetts, however, uni- 
versal manhood suffrage has, I think, become a sort 
of custom of all the States, and perhaps they would 
find it difficult to depart from it. 

What makes it more especially desirable that the 
question of the black vote should be settled is, that 
in reality there are no other great questions whatever 
to divide North and South, or black and white. Such 
is the conclusion to which I have come after very 
careful inquiry. 

Free trade is no longer a question between North 
and South — in fact, if the truth must be told, it is 
not now a question in the United States at all. The 
system is to disarm opposition by protecting every- 
thing and everybody. The sugar and rice of the 
South are protected to conciliate the South. Dwell- 
ing on the good management of Georgia, a man of 
position said to me, ' Look at Georgia ; instead of 
talking nonsense about free trade they have gone in 
manfully, established most successful cotton manufac- 
tures, and taken the benefit of protection.' 

Well, then there is the more burning question, 
lately the Greenback question — still the question of 
debts on the former footing or enhanced debts, and of 
cheap silver dollars against dear gold dollars. That 
question may be very exciting indeed, but it is also 
not one in which the dividing lines will lie between 
North and South, or black and white. True, the 



BLACK A1S T D WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 193 

Southerners owe a good deal of money and want 
cheap money very badly ; but the strong movement 
in that direction came, not from the South, but from 
New England. So far from this being a question in 
which the black vote is dangerous, the fact is that 
the blacks have divided most impartially on the sub- 
ject, arid it has more than anything else given prom- 
ise of a new political shuffling of the cards, after 
which there will be no longer black and white sides, 
but a wholesome intermixture. 

It is true that the old question of State rights 
as against centralisation is now an active factor in 
American politics ; but, so far as I have been able to 
learn, the present vitality of the question entirely 
hinges on the disputed black vote. All else that has 
resumed from the war the Southerners have honestly 
and fully accepted. Most of the States have accepted 
even the black vote and made the best of it. There 
is no rancour and no secessional spirit left. The 
temper of the South is for the most part admirable. 
But two or three States still maintain the struggle 
as regards the free exercise of the black vote. It 
is that and that only which raises the question of 
coercion, irritates the North, and leads to talk of the 
return of the 'man on horseback.' If that were 
out of the way I can discern nothing in regard to 
which the South has any greater interest in the 
maintenance of State rights than the North and West. 
All would, no doubt, be glad to be rid of Federal 
taxation and the interference of Federal officers. 

The North and West would enjoy cheap tobacco 
13 



191 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 

just as much as the South. If it could be so ar- 
ranged, all the States would be most glad to appro- 
priate the drink revenue to their own purposes, and so 
diminish the weight of direct taxation (for State and 
local purposes) of which they complain. In no other 
respect is there any question of infringing the State 
rights of domestic legislation and management in the 
South more than anywhere else. It was slavery that 
raised the question of State rights and brought on 
the war ; it is this sequela of slavery that keeps the 
question alive. 

THE CASTE QUESTION. 

There is one more view in which we must look at 
the question of black and white : I mean the separa- 
tion of the people of America into two castes, which 
is becoming more pronounced than ever. Since the 
North has insisted that the blacks should be admitted 
to political equality neither North nor South has 
made any movement whatever towards admitting 
them to social equality ; in fact, the movement has 
been rather the other way. A certain friendly fami- 
liarity and association was possible and common, 
more especially in the South, when the parties met 
on acknowledged terms of superiority and inferiority. 
Now the whites assert their superiority by social 
exclusion ; and the blacks themselves, unwilling to 
accept the old situation in social matters, have much 
withdrawn themselves from associating with the 
whites on occasions which formerly brought the two 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 195 

races together. This is particularly noticeable in the 
churches. I am told that in former days almost 
every church had a recognised l black quarter ; ' now 
the black churches are almost entirely separate from 
the white churches. It was not unnatural that this 
should have happened at first, but one might have 
hoped that prejudices would have been gradually got 
over. After all it is only matter of habit and custom, 
and that such a habit can be very completely over- 
come is shown by the case of the public conveyances, 
especially the tramway-cars, so universal in America. 
I believe it is not Ions: since no black could venture 
to intrude himself amon^ whites. Now the habit has 
been established, and the humblest black rides with 
the proudest white on terms of perfect equality, and 
without the smallest symptom of malice or dislike 
on either side. I was, I confess, surprised to see how 
completely this is the case ; even an English Radical 
is a little taken aback at first. 

There is generally no bad feeling or incivility 
attending the caste separation ; on the contrary, I saw 
nothing but good feeling and good temper in the 
daily relations between the classes ; only, like separate 
Hindoo castes, they do not intermarry, or worship 
or eat together. I fear there is not at present much 
appearance of any abatement of this caste feeling ; it 
is maintained and perpetuated by the separation of 
the children in the public schools. It has become 
almost the universal rule of the United States that 
none of the schools, high or low, are common to the 
two races ; the whites have their schools, and the 



196 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

blacks have their schools, but there is no intermixture. 
The question was, I believe, much debated, and in 
some States it was not settled without much diffi- 
culty ; but I understand that the general feeling of 
the blacks themselves was in favour of separate 
schools. They hardly felt that their children could 
hold their own against the prejudices of the whites, 
if they were obliged to go to the white schools, and 
they preferred to have public schools established for 
their special benefit. This is now the case wherever 
the blacks are sufficiently numerous ; and the separa- 
tion is complete in the higher schools and colleges as 
well as in the lower schools. The curious part of it 
to the eye of a stranger is the effect on children really 
white but tainted with some heredity of black blood. 
One sees some extremely fair children — sometimes 
fairer than the average of white children — among the 
ebony, woolly-headed negroes. It seems hard ; but 
when one says that, one is told that they are entirely 
accustomed to be so treated, and do not feel it. It is 
hardly to be expected that children brought up in 
ideas of caste will readily get rid of them when they 
grow up. Just like Hindoos, they maintain the 
separation in some things, but not in others. In 
many places I saw white and black children running 
freely about in one another's houses, and apparently 
on very good terms ; but still they know where to 
draw the line. In India we have managed to bring 
the different castes together in the same schools ; but 
it is not so in America. 

We must, then, accept the caste system as a fact. 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 197 

I won't here discuss the advantages or disadvantages 
of its complete abolition, to the extent of permitting 
what is called miscegenation. It has, I believe, been 
suggested that forty millions of somewhat nervous 
and over-energetic American whites, in danger of 
wearing out their physique, as the sharp sword wears 
out the scabbard, might be improved by the small 
amalgam of four millions of easy-tempered, light- 
hearted blacks in the formation of a people of the 
future, fitted permanently to thrive on the soil and in 
the climate of America; but the most pronounced 
philo-negro in the Northern States would recoil from 
such an idea ; so we need not mention it. Christianity 
may effect much to bring the races together, bat not 
quite that for the present. As it is, intermarriage 
is now positively prohibited by law in most of the 
States — an extraordinary state of things among a 
people putting the equality of man at the head of all 
their Constitutions ! Another suggestion much more 
frequently, and, indeed, quite persistently made by 
very many jDeople is, that, the races remaining sep- 
arate, it is not the whites but the blacks who will 
die out. ' They cannot take care of themselves,' it 
is said ; ' they can neither take care of their children, 
nor manage themselves in sickness, nor bring them- 
selves to sanitary laws and habits, now that the be- 
nevolent eye of the slave-owner is withdrawn. It 
is a mere matter of time ; they must die out in the 
end.' It is really quite surprising how seriously this 
is said, when it is so directly contrary to fact. No 
doubt in the terrible disturbance and unsettlement 



198 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 

due to the war there was much negro suffering and 
a good deal of negro mortality in many places ; and 
even yet the increase of the coloured population is 
probably not so rapid as it was in the days of skilful 
and careful slave-breeding, or as it will be when the 
negro family system is better established and the 
negro population is more settled and independent. 
But all statistical figures available show that when- 
ever a new census has been taken it is found that the 
negroes are not diminishing, but increasing more or 
less fast. It is patent to the eye that they are not a 
people who have the least intention of dying out ; on 
the contrary, there seems every prospect that as they 
settle down they will multij^ly with great rapidity, 
and will supply the population still so much want- 
ing properly to occupy the Southern States. They 
are an inevitable fact, and it is incumbent on every 
well-wisher of America to make the best of them, 
instead of supposing that heaven will remove the 
difficulty. 

To me, accustomed to see great communities in 
India, where varieties of caste do not interfere with 
union in a common social system — where, on the con- 
trary, caste but represents a variety of occupations 
and functions in that system — the existence of two 
castes in America does not seem to present any 
insuperable obstacle to well-being. In an Indian 
village there may be, and generally is, a caste of pro- 
prietors, a caste of herdsmen, a caste of labourers, a 
caste of „ money-lenders and shopkeepers, a caste of 
blacksmiths, and a caste of carj)enters, who all live 



BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTIIEKN STATES. 199 

very well together, and support one another by each 
contributing their functions to the village existence. 
It is hard, then, if in the United States two castes 
cannot co-exist, supposing that means of amalga- 
mating them are not found. No doubt it does 
seem cruel that no black or mulatto of the highest 
merit can overstep the line which condemns him to a 
society socially inferior. But very much is open to 
such a man ; there is a great black population among 
whom he may fulfil great functions. Till the blacks 
of the South are able to find anions; their own race 
professional men, merchants, traders, and other oc- 
cupants of the higher places now almost entirely 
monopolised by the whites, it cannot be said that a 
coloured man fitted to rise has no field in which he 
may do so. 

My own view, then, is extremely sanguine. I 
cannot see why the black difficulty in America 
should not be settled, and well settled, and why this 
great people should not retain among them a settled, 
industrious, and progressive coloured j3opulation, 
fitted to fill the portions of the country not adapted 
for the white race, and there to contribute to the 
wealth, the greatness, and the resources of the com- 
mon country. 




SOME OF THE CONTESTS OF 
MY JOEKNAL. 




SOME OF THE CONTENTS OF 
MY JOURNAL. 



VHE ATLANTIC AND NEW YORK. 

I left England in the beginning of September. From my 
own experience, and what I have learned, I think it is better 
not to go much earlier than this. Many people make the 
mistake of going too early, and find it exceedingly hot in 
America in the months of July and August, or sometimes 
even in the beginning of September. I had it quite cool 
from the time of my arrival, and altogether found the autumn 
season a delightful time. 

I started from London very early in the morning, to 
arrange about my passage and get the steamer at Liverpool, 
but found on arrival that I need not have been in quite such 
a hurry. The steamers are timed to leave Liverpool in the 
afternoon, but they always take their final departure with the 
mails from Queenstown, in the Cove of Cork, the following 
afternoon. They have to wait at Queenstown for the mails, 
and are therefore in no hurry. A man who wishes to save 
time, instead of starting in the morning may take the mail 
train to Dublin in the evening, and go on with the mails to 
Cork and Queenstown, and so make sure of catching the 
steamer there ; but it is rather hard travelling. I took my 
passage by the steamer Germanic, one of the finest of the 
White Star line. This line is certainly the most modern, 
and the quickest. The passage-money is not excessive, and 
there is a great saving in taking a return ticket ; this costs 
thirty guineas, which includes your board and lodging for 
eighteen or twenty days — so it is not so very expensive 



204 MY JOURNAL. 

travelling after all. I was very civilly treated. Passengers 
go on board by a tug steamer, and And the large steamer 
lying out in the Liverpool river. We got to Queenstown 
the next day, and started again with the mails at 4 p.m. 
The length of the voyage from Queenstown to Sandy Hook, 
the entrance to New York, is 2,800 nautical miles, and with 
good weather the White Star steamers do the distance in 
eight days ; but we must expect to meet some share of bad 
weather in the Atlantic pretty often. That was my experi- 
ence. For three days we had a heavy sea, which much re- 
tarded the vessel. Then it calmed down, and finally we 
had two or three fine days, during which the vessel made 
from 360 to 380 miles per diem ; that is, from 15 to 16 miles 
per hour on an average. She did that easily, without ap- 
parent effort, and in some voyages she has not unfrequently 
done 400 miles in a day. I had never been in so fast a 
steamer before, and was surprised to find the ease with 
which these vessels go that pace. I thought the Germanic 
a very fine vessel, and the arrangements regarding meals 
and attendance were excellent. The food was quite good. 
Things were mostly arranged upon the American plan. 
Passenger accommodation is principally in the middle and 
forward part of the ship ; there is a good smoking-room, 
and a ladies' cabin, but no general drawing-room or writ- 
ing-room. The ship was quite full. Almost all the passen- 
gers were Americans or else people going on business to 
America. I was fortunate enough to make acquaintance 
with some very agreeable people, several of whom I after- 
wards met in the States. After a voyage of eight days and 
some hours from Queenstown w r e reached the Bar at the 
mouth of the river at Sandy Hook, and found we had to wait 
several hours to get over it — there is not enough water at all 
times of the tide. Then after we were over we were again 
stopped at the Quarantine Station. They seem to be particu- 
lar about sanitary inspection in America. Thence to New 
York is a very short distance. We arrived there, and went 
straight alongside the wharf, being a little more than 8-J days 
from Queenstown and 9^ from Liverpool. It was a fine day, 
and the sight approaching New York very pretty. There is 
comparatively little tide on the American coast, the ordinary 
rise being only five or six feet — just enough to keep the har- 
bour sweet and clean, and not so much as to give all the 



NEW YORK. 205 

trouble that our tides give us. There is deep water all along- 
side New York, and ships lie close in, without the necessity 
for wet docks or other expensive arrangements. We landed 
without delay, and found the Custom House not by any 
means troublesome, everything being done in a quiet and 
orderly way. There was nothing to be seen in the way of 
cabs except great two-horse hackney coaches, exceedingly ex- 
pensive ; but the hotel omnibus presently turned up, and we 
were beset by ' expresses ' — that means in America light carts 
for forwarding luggage. After a little delay I reached the 
Windsor Hotel, where I stayed while in New York. It is a 
very good hotel — perhaps the best specimen of an hotel con- 
ducted pn the American principle ; that is, of charging so 
much per diem for board and lodging. For a residence for a 
little time in New York I should certainly recommend the 
Windsor ; but for a passing traveller it is a little far off, in 
the fashionable quarter, the New York Belgravia; and the 
well-known Fifth Avenue Hotel might be more central and 
convenient. The charge at the Windsor is $4 (say 16s.) per 
diem; and, considering the character of the food and the 
accommodation, I thought the charge quite moderate. Some 
of the hotels at New 1 ork and Boston charge a little more 
and others less; the hotels in the interior of the country 
generally $2| or $3. About $3J to $4 a day may be taken 
as the average cost of board and lodging at first-class hotels. 
You may have a room with a bath-room attached, but that is 
always charged a dollar a day extra. With this exception, 
there are very few extras, especially if you fall into the cus- 
tom of the country and do not drink wine ; if you do you will 
have to pay high for it. If a man is content to find his way 
about by the aid of tramways and other native methods, he 
may live very well at a pound a day, all expenses included. 
Then say ten shillings a day for travelling — that would make 
about thirty shillings a day for obligatory expenses. Of 
course he may spend money beyond this, but really there is 
not so much temptation to do so as in Europe. I should say 
that for 1501. a man may make an extremely good three 
months' tour to America. Besides the hotels on the Ameri- 
can plan which I have mentioned, there are a few in the large 
cities which are conducted on the European principle — charg- 
ing for what you have ; and I believe that if people do not 
want to be overfed, and manage economically, they may live 



206 MY JOURNAL. 

in such hotels almost as cheaply as in those conducted on the 
American plan ; but they will have more trouble ; and if they 
want private rooms and such special accommodation, they 
have to pay very heavily indeed at such hotels as the Bruns- 
wick and Brevoort, at New York. At the Windsor the waiters 
are white men, which is contrary to the usual practice, most 
hotels having black waiters. I found the food really very 
good indeed — a great deal better than that which I afterwards 
obtained at most American hotels. My only complaint was 
that feeding was rather overdone : you were expected to eat 
too much ; and the waiters did not seem to have any mercy 
on you if you did not comply. 

Most of the beds in America have mosquito-curtains, and 
I was terrified by the fear of encountering those old Indian 
enemies. Happily at the season when I was in America I did 
not suffer much ; but at some seasons, I believe, the mosquitos 
are very bad there. 

On the afternoon of my arrival I ' did ' the Central Park 
of New York — an immense place, ever so many miles long, 
and very well kept ; called ' Central ' because it is a long way 
off. Parks are very much the fashion in America; now 
almost every great town has a fine park. A long stream of 
carriages of all kinds was going towards the park, but they 
tailed off and became rare in the further parts. I noticed 
even on Sunday a large number of vehicles going out there ; 
but I am told that these are chiefly filled by the foreign popu- 
lation of New York, which is very large. I should say that the 
park is a kind of cross between Regent's Park and the Bois 
de Boulogne. In the evening everything seemed very dull. 
There are no books in the hotels ; the streets are but indiffer- 
ently lighted, and nothing seemed to be going on. There was 
none of the liveliness of a great European city in the evening. 
The following day I looked about the town, and delivered 
some letters of introduction, being very kindly received by 
some very agreeable people. That evening I dined with a 
very pleasant and hospitable old banker, who struck me as 
wonderfully English in his manners and conversation as well 
as in his table and arrangements. I was much surprised to 
find that he had never been in Europe — which is a rare thing 
— but he had been veiy much in contact with Englishmen. 

The appearance of the city of New York did not strike 
me as being very different from European cities. There are 



NEW YORK. 207 

some fine buildings, but I should not say that the place im- 
presses one very much. Upon the whole it is less un-English- 
looking than I expected. 

The principal points in ]\ T ew York ways which struck me 
were the following: — The way of serving the dishes, the 
cookery, the food, and the arrangements altogether at the 
hotels. The rectangular streets, which one soon learns to find 
a great convenience, the number of the street giving you at 
once the clue to its whereabouts. Then the vehicles used, 
which are different from ours. The ladies' carriages are not 
very different ; they are not particularly smart nor well set up 
— the fine ladies are generally content with coachmen, without 
footmen. But the light traps and everything that goes under 
the name of 'buggy' in America are very smart and fast 
vehicles indeed, with a great many fast-trotting horses. I 
was taken by surprise to find that the spider-like vehicles 
which we rather suppose to be an American eccentricity are 
in every-day use, not only in the towns but still more in the 
country and over the unmade country roads. They are made 
of hickory-wood, are wonderfully light, and seem to be ex- 
ceedingly strong, judging by the work which they endure. 
They last quite as well as our heavy vehicles, and I cannot 
imagine why we do not follow the example in getting such- 
like traps. 

The tramways puzzle one rather at first ; they seem slow, 
and difficult to understand ; but before one has been very 
long in America one becomes quite accustomed to them, and 
uses them continually. My only wonder is that such a high- 
pressure people as the Americans can stand such a slow mode 
of conveyance, for they are very slow. Really people in 
America do not give you the idea of being in a hurry. 

One of the newest things to me was the Elevated Railway 
which has recently been started in New York. It seemed a 
most admirable arrangement. New York is a very long city — 
eight or ten miles long — avenues running the whole length of 
it. The plan is to establish, on two or three of these avenues, 
selected for the purpose, these elevated railways, which rim 
upon iron girders above the heads of the people and the 
ordinary traffic, and are an enormous convenience to those 
who have to go the long distances that New York people go 
between their homes and their places of business. The 
astonishing thing is, how they could have got on to the year 



208 MY JOURNAL. 

1878 without having anything of the kind. They must have 
spent a large portion of their lives travelling five or six 
miles backwards and forwards in the trams. The Elevated 
Railway is, I think, infinitely cheaper and easier, and it 
is certainly very much lighter and more airy than our 
underground railways ; and the facilities for travelling are 
quite as great, the only difference being that passengers go 
upstairs to the railway where we go down. There is no diffi- 
culty in carrying the lines along the long straight avenues ; 
but when you get into the older parts of "New York (which 
are built more like European towns, and where the avenues 
are. not continuous) there is much more difficulty. I was 
astounded to see how the difficulty of going round corners is 
overcome. The makers of the Elevated Railway have not 
gone to the expense of taking up large blocks of houses to 
make the way for their line ; they go sharp round right- 
angled corners, taking up, perhaps, only part of one house at 
the corner, and going round that in a way marvellous to 
behold ; but they do it without accident. The great outcry 
against the Elevated Railways was the damage to the amenity 
of the houses in the streets through which they pass. The 
Americans do things in a more energetic manner than we 
do ; and having got the sanction of the J^sew York Legislature 
for the railway, they made it first and thought about com- 
pensation for the owners of property afterwards. !Nb doubt 
it is not a pleasant thing some day to find that a railway is 
running before your drawing-room windows, but it will prob- 
ably be found in the end that the character of the houses on 
the line is changed, not their value ; they will become places 
of business rather than residences ; but for business purposes 
the railway may add to their value. So perhaps the Ameri- 
cans are wiser than if they had given enormous compensation 
first, according to our plan. When I arrived the only experi- 
ence of the elevated railways having been in summer, when 
they were not so much needed, the cry of the aggrieved 
householders seemed to be more heard than the praises of the 
passengers by the line ; but when I came back, in winter, the 
immense advantage and convenience to the general public 
of the railway had been so much appreciated that praise 
altogether predominated over complaints. I am very much 
impressed witli the belief that elevated railways of this kind- 
in Oxford Street and Piccadilly and such-like thoroughfares 



THE NEW YORK COUNTRY. 209 

would admirably supplement the accommodation afforded by 
the metropolitan lines, which cannot be multiplied. 

When I had spent a day or two in ^"ew York I accepted 

the kind invitation of Mr. O to visit his place on the 

Hudson River, near West Point, but on the opposite side. 
I had a most agreeable visit, and was charmed with the 
country I saw. I had expected to rind the city of Xew York 
a fine place, but had hardly looked for the charming country 
which I found in the neighbourhood. We went up by railway, 
and immediately on getting clear of the city came upon a very 
pretty, undulating, and green country, abounding in summer 
residences. I understand, however, that this is an unusually 
green season, and that in most years the grass is a good deal 
burnt up for a few weeks in summer. However, grass is very 
much the characteristic of the country near Kew York. It is 
mostly a dairy country — not flat, but abounding in pretty hills 
and undulations. In the country within easy reach of Kew 
York the wealthy citizens have beautiful places — not exactly 
of the nature of country seats in our style, but rather like 
large cottages, with abundance of pretty grounds about them. 

Mr. O 's place is really a beautiful one, as are some other 

places in the neighbourhood. I never saw anywhere a prettier 

country or nicer houses. In the afternoon Mr. O took 

me over to the West Point Military Academy — very pleasantly 
situated. It seems that the cadets go through a very long 
and very scientific course of education for the American army, 
and are turned out accomplished officers to a far greater de- 
gree than can be the case under our military arrangements, 
where a boy is hardly a year at Sandhurst. The next day Mr. 
O took me a drive through a pretty country, very undu- 
lating, and even hilly. I enjoyed it very much indeed, as I 
did my visit in every way. In the morning I returned to 
Kew York by the steamer on the Hudson River. The river 
is very pretty indeed, and is much more in the style of a 
Scotch loch than a river. I again occupied myself for a day 
or two doing the sights of Isew York, and among them one 
of the magnificent steamers, which runs to Providence. It 
is impossible to imagine anything more luxurious than the 
American steamers made for inland waters. They are enor- 
mous buildings, with cabins tier upon tier ; and things are 
generally so arranged that you go on board, have supper, go 
U 



210 MY JOUBNAL. 

to bed as comfortably as if you were in your own house, and 
arrive at your destination in the morning. 

I was invited to pay another visit, in the country near 

New York, to Mr. II , a distinguished member of the 

American Legislature, who lives there with his charming 
family, and has something much more like a great English 
estate than you often find in America. It is an old property, 
on which many free blacks have been settled for generations. 

Mr. II took me about the place, and I had my first sight 

of the labouring population of America at home, both white 
and coloured. The latter were, however, of more or less 
mixed blood, and several of them have Indian blood/ being a 
cross between negroes and Indians. All seemed fairly well- 
to-do, the coloured people, perhaps, of a somewhat lower 
class than the whites, but not very much so ; and they seem 
to live quite sociably together, the white and black children 
running into one another's houses ; only they do not inter- 
marry. This is, however, a very exceptional estate. We 
drove a considerable distance into the country, and saw some 
of the farms and farmers. There is little but dairy farming 

in this part of the country. Mr. TI and others have also 

some good trotting stock, and part of the New York country 
produces this stock, I understand, largely. The farmers whom 
we saw universally owned their own farms, although a good 
many have mortgages upon them. The farms seemed to 
average about one hundred acres, mostly pasture, with some 
woodland attached to each. There is a great deal of wood all 
about this part of the country. The farmers seem a very 
good, plain, hard-working style of men. One farm was a 
good deal larger than the average, and the people seemed 
superior, the daughter of the house quite ladylike. The farm- 
ers principally live by selling buttei, and also some pigs and 
apples. Apples are excessively abundant in all this country, 
but I did not gather that much cider is made. They raise 
corn enough for their own consumption, but not for sale. I 
was struck by the quiet, respectable, handsome look of some 
tradesmen assisting a farmer to repair his house. They looked 
quite like the best artisans in England; there was nothing 
American about them, 



A SCAMPER THROUGH THE NORTH AND WEST. 211 



A SCAMPER THROUGH THE NORTH AND WEST. 

I now returned to New York, in order to start for Boston 
by the New York Central Railway. I travelled in a Wagner 
drawing-room car. On each of the main lines a contractor, 
generally either Pullman or Wagner, supplies drawing-room 
and sleeping-cars. There is not much difference between the 
contractors' cars ; there seemed rather a want of variety. The 
railway seemed to be well managed, and the country, as we 
went out of New York, much like what I had seen before in 
the other direction. We ran along the shore across the 
estuaries and harbours, and then passed through Providence 
and other New England places, where there seemed to be 
much population and traffic, and all the signs of a manu- 
facturing district. It was dark before I got to Boston, where 
I went to the Brunswick Hotel, which I found comfortable, 
but very expensive — a good deal more so than the New York 
hotels. 

Next morning I did part of Boston. It seemed a fine, 
substantial town, with good stone buildings and churches. 
After breakfast I took a steamer to Nahant, a small watering- 
place, frequented by the Boston people, where I made the 
acquaintance of a delightful family, from among whom a 
distinguished member of the late Liberal Administration was 
almost in the act of taking to himself a wife, who will be a 
great acquisition to our country. I was pleased with this 
little American watering-place and the style of life there. 
The cottages seemed to be real cottages, with verandahs and 
creeping flowers and all sorts of pretty things. I was the 
more glad to see this, as I had not time to go to Newport, the 
fashionable seaside watering-place of the New York and New 
England people. I am told that it is really a beautiful place, 
and that many of the rich Americans have very fine houses 
of their own there. In short, I gathered that the place must 
be much superior to any of our watering-places — putting 
aside Brighton, which is a great town, and not a watering- 
place, and as ugly as Newport is said to be pretty. Ameri- 
cans seem to go to the seaside a good deal more than we do ; 
it is almost a necessity to them in the hot summer months, 
when the sea-breezes seem wonderfully to temper the heat. 
In point of society Newport seems to stand far above any 



212 MY JOURNAL. 

other place ; "but I gather that there is a great want of occu- 
pation for men. The season only lasts through the summer. 
The famous Saratoga is an inland place, and has, I under- 
stand, become far less select than Newport. In the latter 
part of the season, however, Saratoga has become a great 
resort for ' politicians ' and their families. All sorts of con- 
ventions are held there ; and it might be a very likely place 
at that time for visitors who want to learn something of 
American politics and institutions from very able men — and 
many of the American ' politicians ' are very able men. At 
Boston I was kindly and hospitably admitted to the Somerset 
Club, a very comfortable institution. Clubs have become 
very much an American institution ; I found them at all the 
considerable towns that I visited, and the members are always 
most kind in admitting strangers. Thus admitted one has 
both many social advantages and the run of English books 
and magazines ; sometimes even English newspapers, and 
that is a great treat, for throughout the United States there 
is nothing so difficult as to get an English newspaper of any 
sort or kind. I sometimes suffered for weeks together from a 
sort of ' news-famine ; ' that is, as regards everything except- 
ing the sensational paragraphs telegraphed to the American 
papers. 

Boston and Boston Common and all about them have 
been so often described that I need not dwell upon the place. 
I shall only say that I found the character which it has for 
English-like people and English-like hospitality and kindness 
fully maintained. I went out by tram to Cambridge, to see 
the Harvard College there. The students have rooms in 
college, but are not compelled to dine there, and their dis- 
cipline altogether does not seem to be very strict. Boston 
Free Library is a wonderful institution — by far the largest in 
the world, I believe — and said to be very successful. All over 
New England- the free library is a great institution ; but I 
found that in Pennsylvania and other parts of the country 
they do not seem to see the advantage in the same light. I 
am told that almost all the mills and manufacturing estab- 
lishments in New England are joint-stock concerns. They 
are said to be successfully managed, and to be afflicted by few 
frauds. They continue to divide about 5 per cent, even in 
bad times. They say that the best and most thrifty working 
people are Irish and French Canadians. Americans are 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY. 213 

neither so strong nor so industrious ; they want to live by the 
head, and not by the hand. I think, however, that this 
chiefly applies to the non-agricultural Americans. The 
American farmer is a yerj good, hard-working man. 

There are a large number of distinguished literary men 
resident in and about Boston and Cambridge. The wealth oi 
the Boston people is also large. So, combining brains and 
money as it does, no wonder it is a pleasant place. The 
climate, however, is, I believe, very cold in winter. I was 
only able to glance at the place, and must hope to return to it 
another time. 

These Eastern cities have a great advantage in using only 
anthracite coal, which burns without blacks ; and so, from a 
combination of climate and coal, they are very clean and 
bright. 

I left Boston. for the West by the early express train 
through Massachusetts. The country seemed hilly, and not 
very fertile, but pretty and pleasant-looking, with many 
villages and factories. Connecticut, I am told, is a good 
agricultural country; Maine is also a good farming State. 
At present all is excitement in Maine, on account of the 
majority given to the Greenbackers. General Butler, the 
great Greenback hero, is stumping Massachusetts, and alarm- 
ing all the solid, old-fashioned people. I saw him on the 
stump — a wild-looking man. As we got on Massachusetts 
becomes quite highland and picturesque. The highland 
country seems to be of much the same character all the way 
from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico ; the only difference is 
that in the Southern States there is a large belt of flat, 
swampy country between the hilly country and the sea; 
whereas in New England the hills come down almost to the 
sea. As we pass through Massachusetts and get into the 
New York State, approaching Albany, the country becomes 
more flat and agricultural. Beyond Albany are the ' Sandy 
Plains ' — poor and sandy, but well settled. Hereabouts was 
the old Dutch settlement. 'Further on, the sandy plains 
change suddenly for a fertile and green country, near Sche- 
nectady ; and from here up the Yalley of the Mohawk is the 
finest country in the New York State, and the seat of the 
great cheese manufacture. The cheese is all made on the 
factory system, the factories generally being on a very large 
scale. The milk is raised by the farmers around, who bring 



214 MY JOURNAL. 

it to the factories, where it is made into cheese. I stopped 
at Schenectady — a very nice country town — with the appear- 
ance of which I was much pleased. It is an American habit 
to line the streets of country towns with fine trees. They 
are very shady and pleasant ; and there seemed to be a great 
abundance of fine healthy young people, especially girls, 
about. This first specimen of an American country town 
very favourably impressed me. There is here one of the 
many excellent colleges which abound in America. I was 

very pleasantly entertained by Dr. P and his wife, very 

pleasant and intellectual people. We drove a long way 
through the country. It seemed a good, quiet, agricultural 
district. The most prominent crop at this moment is what 
is called ' broom-corn,' out of which brooms are made ; a very 
large quantity of it is raised in America. I cannot conceive 
how the world can consume so many brooms. The Mohawk 
and its Valley are really beautiful. In the evening I met a 
Hue old lady, the widow of a great Abolitionist, and heard 
many stories of the ■ Underground Railway,' and the ways 
by which the ^Northern people enabled many slaves to escape 
into Canada. I also met one of the largest farmers about. 
He has nearly 300 acres, and seemed a very intelligent man. 
I was soon quite at home with him. He might have been a 
good Scotch farmer. He said almost all the farmers own 
their own land. There is a very strong opposition to any 
renting system under a landlord. A good many large prop- 
erties came down from former times under Dutch and 
English grants ; but the proprietors found it difficult to hold 
them as rented estates ; in fact, he said, in the case of one 
proprietor in that part of the country who tried to do so, and 
to maintain and enhance his rents, a good deal of burning 
took place. He says, however, that occasional short leases 
are not objected to. He raises and fattens much stock, and 
that seems to be a very growing industry. He himself goes 
in for pedigree stock, to sell. The average farms hereabouts 
are from 100 to 150 acres. Some of the Mohawk Yalley 
land is extremely valuable. He talks of values about equal 
to moderate English prices for land. There is an unusually 
fine apple crop this year, and apples are selling almost ab- 
surdly cheap. 

I have had a good deal of talk about religious sects in 
America. All seem agreed that Americans of different per- 



CANADA. 215 

suasions do not hate one another on account of religion. 
My informants much doubted black students being equal to 
white ones as they grow up. There are none at the College 
here, but there are at several Northern colleges. 

From Schenectady I took the night-train for Niagara, via 
Buffalo. I met a man who had been visiting one of the 
famous Agapemones which is upon this line. He said that 
they affect to raise human stock on scientific breeding prin- 
ciples ; but the whole thing he thought very disgusting. In 
the morning we found ourselves in the country near Rochester. 
It seemed flat and more agricultural than pastoral. From 
thence there seemed to be a considerable ascent, and then 
very flat again towards Buffalo. Passing Buffalo we ran 
down Niagara River to the Falls. There seemed to be very 
many orchards in this part of the country, principally apples 
and peaches. I stayed, at the Falls, at the International Hotel, 
upon the American side. The Clifton Hotel, on the Canada 
side, has by far the best view ; but then Goat Island and the 
best points for seeing the Falls from near can only be ap- 
proached from the American side, and it is a long way from 
the Clifton ; so I think it is best to stop on the American side 
and go over to see the view from the other side. I crossed 
by the ferry tinder the Falls. It is quite easy, and there is 
no danger or difficulty ; but I was advised not to give in to 
the people who bother one to go down behind the Falls. I 
am told by many that the only result is to encounter a great 
deal of wet spray and a great deal of mud, and that there is 
nothing to repay one for it all. All the rest I did in quite 
the correct way ; but the Falls have been so often described 
that I need not go over it all. They certainly are a very 
fine and unique thing. It would not do to travel in the 
country without seeing them. One day is amply sufficient, 
if the sightseer is active. From the other side I went a 
little way into Canada. It seemed a pleasant country. The 
population near the border is a good deal mixed ; but I am 
told that more Americans come to the Canadian than 
Canadians go to the other side. The taxation is now much 
lighter in Canada. I returned by the fine Suspension Bridge 
— saw a good many Indian women, who sat and knitted, and 
apparently are part of the show, but they did not beg. They 
look more fair and squat and Mongolian-like than I had 
expected. The village of Niagara is full of shops for the sale 



216 MY JOURNAL. 

of Indian goods. I do not know why it is so much an Indian 
centre. 

I took another look at the Falls in the morning — they 
well bear looking at twice certainly. I noticed that the hotel 
bill was very moderate. To be sure it is rather .late in 
the season ; but perhaps the neighborhood of Canada brings 
down prices. Certainly the hack carriages on the Canadian 
side are 'very moderate compared with American charges. 
From Niagara I went to Chicago, through Canada, by the 
Great Western Railway, crossing the river by the Suspension 
Bridge. The country beyond the river was much like what 
I had already seen. We passed the Welland Canal ; that is, 
the Canadian canal, by which ships are taken round the 
Niagara Falls. It is now being re-excavated to the size and 
depth sufficient to carry seagoing ships ; so that vessels may 
sail direct from the head of Lake Superior to ports in Europe 
with cargoes of grain and timber, or rather will soon be able 
to do so. If the navigation were open all the year round 
this route would have an immense advantage, but unfortu- 
nately it is closed by ice a great part of the year. I stopped 
a little time at Hamilton, in Canada. It seemed a decent- 
looking, newly-settled town, with many factories for agricul- 
tural implements. It is at the head of Lake Ontario, but 
I did not see much shipping. I went to a fair and agricul- 
tural show which was then taking place, and thought it really 
a very fine show indeed. It was full of Scotch people, or at 
any rate people talking very decided Scotch ; indeed, there 
was so much of the Scotch intonation that if I had shut my 
eyes I might have supposed myself in Scotland. I am told 
that there are many Irish too hereabouts, and in one part 
of this country there are also Dutch. When I entered 
Canada I noticed that a superior class of coloured people 
came into the train. There seemed to be several parties of 
them, and among them several smart black ladies — very 
smart indeed. I do not know whether it was an accident 
seeing these people just as I entered Canada, or whether 
there are many well-to-do descendants of old refugees. In 
all the crowd at the fair there were scarcely any coloured 
people. I only saw two. All the rest looked very British. 
I was much interested in the agricultural show. There were 
plenty of good cattle, and horses, and pigs, but no sheep. 
But going away in the train I saw a good many sheep. Be- 



CANADA. 217 

sides the ordinary food-grains there were some very fine man- 
golds, and a very magnificent show of apples, some pears, and 
very fine grapes ; but I am told that most of the grapes are 
grown under glass. There was a great variety of agricultural 
machinery. A man was exhibiting and much praising what 
he called sugarcane grown in the neighbourhood. I looked 
at it, and found it was only sorghum, and that what was 
called sugar was nothing but a kind of molasses. In the ba- 
zaar there were many things of United States manufacture — 
watches from Illinois, enamelled ironmongery from St. Louis, 
silver from Connecticut ; but furniture was mostly Canadian, 
as also were a good many woollen goods, which did not seem 
to me very first-rate. A little further on I stopped a little 
while at London. Here again another fair and show was 
going on, and again I found many Scotch-speaking people. 
I am sorry to say that one or two with whom I specially 
fraternised turned out to be tipsy. However, that little weak- 
ness excepted, they seemed a good sort of Scotch people. I 
do not know whether it is because I am remarkably -sober 
myself, but I seem to have a special attraction for Scotchmen 
who have had a drop too much — when I go abroad. 

There was an hotel-car attached to the train on the Great 
Western line, and in it I had far the best travelling meal I 
have yet had — everything warm and nice, and the prices 
moderate. These hotel-cars are an immense convenience. It 
is a great blessing, and greatly improves the digestion, to 
be able to take your meal at your leisure, without the con- 
tinual fear of being left behind. Unfortunately, however, 
the hotel-cars are comparatively rare, and are only found on 
a few lines. On this line they go as far, I think, as Omaha, 
but they do not now run (as they once did) to San Francisco. 
For the rest of the journey passengers are obliged to get 
their meals at the stations, which must be a very great draw- 
back to that long journey. I know nothing so trying in the 
American arrangements as the stopping and the starting of 
the trains. There are no porters to shout and no slamming 
of doors, because there are no doors to slam, and most fre- 
quently no warning is given whatever. The train slides away 
quite silently, and until I gained experience I was once or 
twice almost left behind whilst standing on the platform, 
because I thought that the train going off in that style must 
be only shunting. However, you are always at liberty to run 



218 MY JOURNAL. 

after the train and catch it, and get np as best yon can. That 
is what a large proportion of the passengers do. 

The country about London is very pretty and good ; to 
my idea as pleasant and home-looking an agricultural coun- 
try as I have seen in America. It is imdulating, and seemed 
to have much good grass, grazed over by fine stock, whereas 
in much of the New York country I gathered that the grass 
was much oftener cut as hay than grazed. In this Canada 
country there is much fine wood and many stumps in the 
fields, giving it a very newly-cleared appearance. Isever- 
theless I cannot help thinking that it showed more signs of 
good Scotch farming than anything I had seen in the States. 
In the night-train to Chicago there were a large number of 
sleeping-cars, and very many families and children returning 
from their summer outings. Sleeping-cars crowded in this 
fashion are not the coolest and pleasantest places in the 
world ; and what surprises one is, that whereas in America 
there is almost always separate accommodation for ladies, 
every hotel having a separate ladies' entrance, and even every 
post-office a special window for ladies, in the sleeping-cars 
there is no division at all — all sexes and ages are accommo- 
dated promiscuously. I do not recommend night-travelling 
when there is a special run upon the cars. With all this 
sleeping accommodation and hotel-car and other luxuries, I 
was surprised to find there was no smoking accommodation 
whatever, except a very filthy car filled with emigrants. There 
is much less provision for smokers in America than with us. 
On this line there is practically a third class, under the name 
of ' emigrant carriages.' During the night we crossed the St, 
Lawrence (or whatever the river is here called) on a steamer 
without being at all disturbed. The train is taken on board 
and everything managed in the quickest and easiest manner. 
They certainly do manage these things capitally in America. 
Their ferry-boats are much superior to anything to be seen in 
Europe. In the morning we found ourselves in the Michigan 
country, near the lake. It seemed there somewhat poor and 
jungly, and on the borders of the lake there were great sand- 
hills. As we got on the country became somewhat better, 
but still a dead flat, with a great deal of marsh, and many of 
the houses built on piles. The lake was quite smooth : there 
were no waves beyond ripples, We duly arrived at Chicago. 
The railway station was burnt down in the great fire, and 



CHICAGO. 219 

has not been rebuilt. The town, though still showing a good 
many blanks, has been rebuilt in a wonderful way, and is 
undoubtedly a very line one, but rather dirty and smoky — 
not clean, like the Eastern cities, where they burn anthracite 
coal. The whole country about is a dead level. The town 
is laid out on, I think, rather too great a scale ; the distances^ 
are very great. Outside each quarter is a great park. I 
went to the Grand Pacific Hotel — not the largest, but it seems 
very good and well situated, and I was comfortable there. 

I made the acquaintance of Mr. A , the President of the 

Illinois Central Railway, who gave me much assistance ; and 
I found one or two friends whom I had before met on my 
travels, and who were very kind to me. I spent the day in 
thoroughly doing the town. I went to one of the great pig- 
killing establishments. It certainly was a wonderful sight. 
They kill and dispose of 8,000 pigs per diem. It takes 
three or four days to convert the pigs into bacon, but they 
are really made into sausages in the course of an hour. The 
bacon is put into railway cars in laj-ers, without any further 
packing, and so sent to the Eastern States. I drove round 
the parks, which are not quite complete, and may be called 
the parks of the future ; but they are very well and hand- 
somely laid out. There is a pleasant villa suburb called 
Hyde Park. Most of the Western cities have a ' Hyde Park.' 
Here also there was an exhibition going on, which I went 
to see. American-made goods seemed to preponderate, the 
agricultural machinery, as usual, very prominent. I went to 
see one of the great elevators by which grain is raised by 
machinery, stored, and shipped. It must be understood that 
the elevator in America is not a mere machine for transferring 
the grain from one conveyance to another, but is, in fact, a 
great warehouse, where grain is stored sometimes for months, 
especially on the great lakes, where, owing to the suspension 
of traffic in the winter, it must often be kept for a consider- 
able period in store. The system seems to be one under 
which a man does not necessarily receive back his own grain, 
but only a like quantity of grain of the same grade. I was 
not quite able to understand the nature of the interference 
exercised, but I found that at Chicago, and I believe at most 
American commercial centres, the produce brought to market 
is examined by official inspectors, who class the grain, and 
apparently nothing is allowed to be sold without being offi- 
cially classed. 



220 MY JOURNAL. 

I met at Chicago and had much talk with Judge F , 

of Tennessee, a gentleman who has had great experience in 
the Southern States ; and also another gentleman, a Chicago 
lawyer, connected with the railway, a very clear-headed man. 
He told me that in all the States except Louisiana the law is 
based upon the English law. The Illinois Legislature meets 
biennially. The State Constitutions are generally revised by 
a Convention — say about once in every twenty years on the 
average, but there is no fixed time. Each State has its own 
civil and criminal law, and the State. Judges dispose of all 
cases except offences against the United States revenue laws, 
which are tried by the United States Judges. After the war 
there was a general bankruptcy law throughout the whole of 
the United States, but it has now expired, and has not been 
renewed. There is a local insolvency law in some States, but 
not in all. In all States there seems to be a regular system of 
public prosecution — a prosecuting attorney is always to be 
found, corresponding to our Scotch Procurator Fiscals. 

Judge F being a Southerner, takes a somewhat 

Southern view of things. He thinks the blacks will last for a 
time, but they cannot take care of themselves, and will die 
out in the end. Whether by nature or want of education, 
they seem to have a lower order of intelligence, and do not 
do well work requiring a "fine hand, care, or thought ; he 
believes they do not succeed in factories. They have a few 
farms of their own, but very few. Lie admits, however, that 
they are the most good-natured of mankind, and do very 
well under white superintendence. Most of the cotton is 
raised by negroes under a system of cultivation upon shares — 
that is, the crops are divided between the proprietor and the 
negro who does the work, the negroes being well looked after. 
The larger estates in the South are now broken up into 
smaller farms, and more carefully worked than they used 
to be. 

I went to see a great dry goods store. Dry goods are 
cloths and' textile fabrics of all sorts, and, I believe, a good 
many other things besides ; but I cannot exactly define the 
term. At all events dry goods are not groceries nor iron- 
mongery. In this Great Central Chicago Store they say that 
half or perhaps more of the goods are of American make. 
Of the remainder, perhaps, one-third are English, and 'the 
rest French and German, or from other foreign countries. 



CHICAGO TO ST. LOUIS. 221 

Cotton goods they declare to be as cheap as in Manchester ; 
and they have many varieties to suit American taste, but 
Avoollens are excessively dear. Woollen clothes cost fully 
double what they do in England ; ladies' silks are also very 
dear. Woollen goods are now manufactured in almost every 
State in America. The Americans evidently are pushing 
hard to come up to us in that trade. 

From Chicago I took the night train through Illinois to 
St. Louis. This time we had the Pullman cars, which seemed 
cleaner and better than the Wagner's, in which I had before 
travelled. In the morning the train was detained for a time 
at Decatur. I had time to take a walk and look about the 
place on a charming morning, and I was much pleased with 
this Illinois country place. It seemed to be a kind of cross 
between town and country — large streets, laid out at right 
angles, and lined with trees in the usual pleasant manner ; 
nice houses scattered about, with plenty of room. Although 
there is little natural wood in Illinois the trees when planted 
grow luxuriantly. The soil seemed a rich black soil ; there 
is nothing like hills, but decided undulations. I now quite 
understand the rolling land we hear so much of. There was 
beautiful grass and clover in many of the fields, and plenty 
of stock of all kinds. Many apple-orchards were planted, but 
they do not seem to thrive here as they do in the country 
further north. The wind, I believe, is too much for them. 
There was good coffee and refreshment at the station. There 
seems to be generally some sort of hotel at these country 
stations. At last we started, and had daylight for the run 
onwards to St. Louis. I was much interested and pleased 
with the country. Much of it is rolling, and more or less 
raised. There were occasionally what looked like small hil- 
locks, but nothing amounting to hills. The country through 
which I travelled all consisted of what once was prairie, but 
is now cultivated and enclosed. There are only a few belts 
of natural wood in broken ground near streams and ravines, 
especially as we approached the Mississippi. All the land 
seemed well cultivated. The great crop is Indian corn. It 
is now standing on the ground ripe. In some of the barer 
parts the crops seemed of poor growth and the weeds very 
strong ; but other parts were much better cultivated, and the 
crops there seemed strong and good. We passed a good many 
wheat-fields, the autumn wheat already up, and the fields 



222 MY JOUENAL. 

clean and well cultivated. I saw no root-crops ; and through- 
out most of the country at this season there is little appear- 
ance of plentiful grass — the fields seemed pretty bare — but a 
great deal of hay was stacked. We passed many villages and 
small towns. The people at some of these places seemed 
primitive enough. After running through a considerable belt 
of wood we came to the Mississippi, with the city of St. 
Louis on the opposite side, and crossed by the great bridge, a 
very fine structure. 

I went to the Lindell Hotel, a fine and large one. My 
first day at St. Louis was a Sunday, and I noticed there that, 
although the people seemed very religious and church-going, 
they were somewhat Continental in their views of Sunday. 
Here and at other places I saw the eternal American game of 
base-ball being played on Sunday. There was a boat-race ; 
and the Exhibition grounds (here, as everywhere, an agricul- 
tural exhibition was going on) were very full of people, the 
Sunday notwithstanding. All over America shops are closed 
on Sunday, as with us ; but they seem to have no shutters to 
the windows, so that they have not the same closed appear- 
ance. I stayed at St. Louis long enough to have a good look 
about the town. There seemed to be many fine buildings, but 
I should say it is hardly so pretentious as Chicago. However, 
it is almost as large, with very long streets running out into 
the country, and a large park. 

I noticed in the St. Louis papers that in this State of Mis- 
souri parties are so divided that the negro vote seems to be of 
consequence. The question of mixed or separate schools 
seems to be an important one here, and the advocates of 
mixed schools hope to secure the votes of the blacks. I went 
down to have a good look at the Mississippi, that great river 
of America, and I was certainly disappointed. After having 
seen other great rivers I was not particularly struck with this 
one. It may be larger than the others, but the size is not 
palpable ; the breadth is not excessive, and there is no appear- 
ance of a very strong current. According to the register it 
is now seven feet above low-w T ater level, which, I suppose, is 
rather low. The Mississippi and Missouri join a few miles 
above this. The water looks muddy. It is a curious thing 
that there seem to be no good fish in the Mississippi. There 
are no river-fish in the hotel bills ; those that they have come 
over from the great lakes or from the sea. I asked about it, 



KANSAS. 21M 

and they said only a few inferior fish, called cat-fish, are 
caught in the Mississippi. 

There are many steamers here, but none equal to the 
great inland steamers at Xew York. I took two trips of 
some miles each into the suburbs. On one route there was a 
park and a great many good villas, and on the other there 
were endless streets of poor men's houses. They seemed good 
of their kind. The country rises in a rolling way ; but there 
are no hills or signs of the mountains yet. 1 noticed that the 
driver of the tram in which I travelled was a Frenchman, 
and the conductor an Irishman. I am told that there are a 
good many French here, but there seem to be more German 
signboards, notices, &c. I saw very little peculiarly Ameri- 
can about the dress and appearance of the people, and did not 
even notice very much in their voices. In crowded tram-cars 
scarcely anyone said anything to anybody, and there was 
no roughness. Wideawakes are certainly more common than 
in England ; chimney-pot hats are comparatively rare. In 
the Exhibition I saw some very fine fat cattle. In the hotel 
there was a board with the various churches grouped under 
denominations. Baptist, Episcopal, Methodist, and 'Presby- 
terian are the most numerous. Besides Presbyterian there 
are also a few 'United Presbyterian' churches. One of the 
largest denominations struck me, being called simply ' Chris- 
tians.' On inquiry I was told that this is a large persuasion 
throughout a great part of the States. They are called 
' Christians ' or ' Campbellites,' being founded by a certain 
Bishop Campbell; they are said to have branched off from 
the Baptists. 

After doing St. Louis I started for Kansas. The first 
part of the country is much like that on the other side of the 
river, but becomes more rolling as we go on. On all the 
lands formerly prairie a good deal of tree-planting has been 
done, and trees are now nowhere rare ; but they are not 
yet available for timber. The timber is chiefly imported 
from the lakes into Illinois and the neighbouring country. 
Hedges are becoming very common as fences. Getting on 
towards Kansas the country rolls more and more, and a good 
deal of stone begins to crop up. I was surprised to see the 
extent of cultivation. There is still nothing that can be 
called a real open prairie, though there are some grazing 
tracts. The grass is now not very green ; but here also im- 



224 MY JOURNAL. 

mense quantities of liay are stored. Some hemp is grown, 
and also tobacco ; and bees are kept to a considerable extent. 
"We passed a large bee-farm ; and in a very inchoate skeleton 
village I noticed a beehive shop. In parts natural wood be- 
comes pretty common, principally oak, especially near the 
Missouri River. To see the open prairie yon must go far 
back from the railways. I am told that far away out in the 
south-west of Kansas State, upon the Arkansas River, is a 
very fine country of big-rolling prairie, with splendid soil, 
where a great wheat cultivation has been developed during the 
last six or eight years. Sometimes they suffer from drought, 
but usually there is rain enough for wheat. From all I can 
gather I understand that the rise to the foot of the Rocky 
Mountains is quite gradual, and that even when you come 
to the mountains the ascent on this side is comparatively 
gradual. Between this and the mountains is what is called 
the Great American Desert; but it now turns out that the 
desert is a myth — that there is no desert at all. Travelling 
along here I did not see very many cattle, but at all the 
stations there were pens and inclines for shipping cattle. I 
noticed a good many horses and many very fine mules ; oxen 
do not seem to be used for draught in this part of the country. 
The cattle-drivers and farm-hands ride with wooden stirrups. 
You may see a man on horseback f etching in a cow. I stayed 
at Kansas City, which, by the way, is not in Kansas State at 
all, but in Missouri, on the borders of Kansas. There were 
many vehicles of all sorts, well horsed. Everyone seems to 
keep a horse ; yet the price of a hack carriage is two dollars 
the first hour, and one dollar for every subsequent hour. The 
proprietors say they are obliged to take out licenses, which 
causes conveyances to be dear. I noticed here an ordinance 
against touting and soliciting custom, making it a misde- 
meanour. Apparently this is a municipal ordinance published 
by the Mayor and signed by the town clerk. The innkeepers' 
notice regarding liabilities for losses is a Missouri State Law 
(Revised Statutes of Missouri, chapter 79). Kansas City is on 
the Missouri River. I was very much disappointed with that 
river ; it does not look very large. It is like an Indian river, 
with sandbanks in it ; but I understand it does not rise so 
much. There are no steamers and apparently no navigation 
here, except a few mud-barges and small boats for local use. 
In fact, the river is not much used in this part of its course, 



KAXSAS. 225 

but it is more used higher up, and it is navigable throughout 
more or less. Occasional steamers pass up, and can go up a 
very long way — it is scarcely known how far. The Govern- 
ment send steamers up by the river route for supplying their 
far-away outposts in the far North- West, where there are no 
other means of communication. Kansas City is mostly on 
high ground. It seems a thriving place, nothing very remark- 
able about it, and is quite modern in its ways. I should not 
have known I was so far West. My hotel was the St. James's, 
on high ground, comfortable and moderate. I found that 
no paper is published on Monday morning, and I asked, 
'Why, are people too good to print upon Sunday?' The 
answer I got was, ' Xo, but they drink upon Sunday.' How- 
ever, I did not see much of that, and rather think that my 
informant was unduly severe on his countrymen. 

In the afternoon I visited the stock-yards, and then went 
on the Kansas side of the small river which here divides the 
two States. There Avere many cattle in the yards, and most 
of them seemed to be very well-bred animals — not very fat, 
bat tolerably so. I understand that they will go to the 
American butchers at once. The greater number come from 
Texas, many also from Colorado. The cattle raised in Colo- 
rado are said to be the best-bred. Much good short-horn 
blood has, I believe, been introduced of late years. The 
cattle come here by rail. There is no grazing-ground along 
which they could be driven for two or three hundred miles 
from this. They are driven from Texas up to the railway, 
and then trucked. These railways have certainly led to the 
cultivation and civilisation of the country in a marvellous 
degree. Where a few years ago all was uncultivated and bar- 
barous now things are almost as civilised as in an English 
town, to say the least. The bad spirits who hover on the 
borders of civilisation have gone farther West. To see the 
real West one must go much farther than Kansas City ; but 
as my inquiries lie chiefly in another direction I have not gone 
farther. 

In Kansas City, and still more in the suburbs of Kansas 
proper, the negroes are much more numerous than I have yet- 
seen. On the Kansas side they form quite a large proportion 
of the population. They are certainly subject to no indignity 
or ill-usage. They ride quite freely in the trams and railways 
alongside of the whites, as I mvself experienced, and there 
15 



226 MY JOURNAL. 

seems to be no prejudice whatever against personal contact 
with them. I did not hear them at all abused or slanged. 
Coming along in the tram-car a cart was found standing on 
the line, and detained us some time. "When the owner at last 
appeared he was a black man. A white waggoner in London 
would certainly have been most unmercifully slanged by a 
'bus-driver, and would have deserved it ; but our driver said 
nothing that I could hear. He may have moved his lips or 
said something low, but it was the negro I heard defiantly 
call out, ' What do you say ? ' Altogether, for such a place as 
this, there is surprisingly little shouting or slanging. So 
many crossings on a level would lead to endless bad language 
in London ; but people in America seem much more on their 
good behaviour. The blacks are civil and attentive as waiters 
in the hotels and railway cars, but sometimes ill-mannered. 
The black porter in the Pullman car on my journey here 
slept on the passengers' seats, with his boots on the cushions, 
in a way that not every passenger, and certainly not a white 
guard, would venture on ; and he washed his own dirty hands 
in the passengers' washhand-basin before my face, before 
doing something wanted. The white railway conductors are 
generally civil and well-behaved, though they do not expect 
tips, as these ill-mannered blacks do. I am bound, however, 
to say that my subsequent experience did not confirm this 
view of the bad manners of the blacks. 

Here the negroes seem to have quite taken to work at 
trades ; I saw them doing building work, both alone and 
assisting white men, and also painting and other tradesman's 
work. On the Kansas side I found a negro blacksmith, with 
an establishment of his own ; he was an old man, and very 
'negro,' and I could only extract a little from him. He 
grumbled just like a white man — he made a living ; did pretty 
well: 'But things are dear.' 'Well, they are cheaper than 
they were.' ' But then you are expected to work cheaper.' 
He came from Tennessee, after emancipation ; had not been 
back there, and did not want to go. Most of the schools here 
are separate, and not mixed. ' Perhaps that suits best. Some 
black boys go, and some don't.' A black boy of about ten 
was standing by. That boy did not go. Could not say why. 
His father is a member of the School Board ; and though he 
has several children, never sent one to school. I also saw 
black women keeping apple-stalls, and engaged in other such 



KANSAS. 22 Y 

occupations. In these States, which I may call intermediate 
between black and white countries, the blacks evidently have 
no difficulty. I am told that they work tolerably well, but, as 
it was put to me, they are not very 'forehanded.' They are 
content if they have enough for the time. However, my in- 
formant said there were a good many blacks in the further 
part of the Kansas State, who are doing pretty well, especially 
some who have small farms of their own. 

The suburban cottages seemed to me very nice indeed, 
with trees and orchards, and shrubs and gardens; but, as it 
generally happens in the interior parts of America, they have 
not gardens such as our gardens, only fruit-trees, caboages, 
Indian corn, pumpkins, &c, but very few flowers. Things are 
not quite so smart in Kansas as in the larger cities, but quite 
good and comfortable, and in the same style. There is a 
singular uniformity about everything in America, both in the 
food and style of the dishes and everything else. There are 
always very many dishes on the bill of fare ; but in all places, 
and every day, they seem to be very much the same. One 
gets sick of looking at the list. The Americans seem to eat 
their meat underdone to a degree which somewhat astonished 
one. I was always rather fond of underdone meat, but I dare 
not ask for it underdone, or ' rare,' as they call it here, when 
the question is put as it usually is, for it is far beyond 
me. American ladies will eat, in the sweetest manner, meat 
which I could not touch. Prices here in the West are more 
moderate than in the Eastern cities. Board and lodging is 
only two or two and a half dollars a day, and a single meal 
about fifty cents. They seem very fond of English names ; 
here, too, there is a ' Hyde Park.' At the hotel here the 
mutton is called ' Southdown,' and the cheese ' English dairy 
cheese.' 

Xext morning I started, on my return to Illinois, by an- 
other line, the Hannibal and St. Joe. This is one of the many 
competing lines which run east ' and west in this part of the 
world. It is surprising how many of them there are, and how 
difficult it is to choose between their relative merits. I think 
I have said that there are no books in the American hotels, 
but there is a great provision of railway advertisements, each 
railway not only advertising its merits, but enforcing them by 
a map, on which, by taking some slight liberties with geogra- 
phy, the particular line is shown broad, straight, tempting in 



228 MY JOURNAL. 

every way, wliile all the other lines are depicted as in can, cir- 
cuitous, and inconvenient. In default of any other literature 
one is driven to devote one's evenings to the study of these rail- 
way lines. We crossed the Missouri River and ran through 
the interior of North Missouri. The river still looks not very 
large nor interesting. There are many bridges on Loth the 
Missouri and the Mississippi above St. Louis, though none be- 
low on the united streams. On crossing the Missouri we ran 
through some fine timber and some good green pasture, 
abounding in cattle ; then through a good deal of broken 
ground and some swampy tracts; then a long tract of highish 
prairie country, very fiat, with little roll, mostly cultivated ; 
but there were some large natural pastures, generally enclosed. 
Near the Mississippi we dropped down into a heavily- wooded 
country, and through that to the river. I thought it beautiful. 
It is very broad and large, with wooded islands. To the eye 
it seemed to me larger than the Missouri. There were a good 
many steamers about, and I understand there is very much 
more navigation than on the Missouri. The river is navigable 
up to St. Paul's. We crossed it on a good light iron bridge to 
Quincy, in Illinois, which seemed a good and settled town. 
The Illinois country near it is quite a garden. I noticed be- 
sides the ordinary crops a few vineyards, a good deal of tobac- 
co, and many good grass-fields. As we went on the country 
seemed very much the same as the part of Illinois I had seen 
before. We crossed the Illinois, a considerable river. Spring- 
field, the political capital of the State, seemed a sort of exag- 
gerated village, with rural-looking streets and houses. The 
roads are a great difficulty in these parts. There is no 
metal to be got, and the black soil, like the Indian soil of the 
same kind, is very good for mud-roads in dry weather, but 
wholly impracticable in wet weather. This accounts for the 
immense number of railways in this State. As long as we 
were in Missouri we saw a good many blacks. At one place 
the black passengers dined at a separate table ; but in Illinois, 
in a country settled by whites, the blacks are rarely found 
— only, in fact, as hotel servants and suchlike. I understand, 
however, that in the southern part of Illinois blacks are num- 
erous. At Cairo they load the vessels and do such work. I 
had occasion to ask at the hotel who cleaned the boots, that I 
might tip him. ' There is the gentleman,' said the landlord,, 
pointing to a black, and apparently quite in earnest. It 



INTERIOE OF ILLINOIS. 229 

seemed to me that the rule of service is black men and white 
women. At the stations at meals as we came along to-day we 
were generally waited upon by nice quiet-looking white girls. 
I did not see black women much employed except as nurses ; 
and I am told that they make good cooks. 

Coming along the Illinois country from Qnincy to Cham- 
pagne I was struck by the large number of passengers. There 
were many junctions, and people crowded out and in. It 
must be remembered, however, that there are generally only 
two trains in the twenty-four hours. At Champagne, a small 
country town, there was a very decent hotel, very clean, and 
charges moderate. I stayed there for the night. 

In the morning I found that Mr. O , President of the 

Illinois Central Railway, had come down in his car with Mr. 

A , the British Yice-Consul, and they kindly invited me 

to take up my quarters with them. We went to see the Illi- 
nois Industrial University located here. It seems a very 
nourishing institution, devoted to agriculture and other useful 
arts. The President showed us over, and I was called upon 
to make a little speech. Most of the students are young men ; 
but there are also a good many young women. They have a 
model farm, garden, and stock-farm attached. The professor 
of agriculture gave me much information. There is a fine 
museum, with botanical schools and everything complete. 
Talking of agriculture, I am told that here, as elsewhere, 
it pays better to cultivate a small farm, carefully worked and 
looked after, than a large one. Only stock-farms pay on a 
large scale. In California land has got into the hands of great 
holders, who cultivate by hired labour. There are few small 
proprietors, and probably to that is due the rowdyism which 
seems to some extent to prevail in California. 

All over this part of the country there is a disposition to 
pay much attention to live stock. Farmers pride themselves 
on their grass-fields, and believe that their grass is as good as 
ours. They raise stock here for the cattle-market ; but in the 
North of Illinois there are many dairy farms and cheese 
factories. Besides hay a good deal of corn is given to the cat- 
tle. AYe visited a small American farmer, and found his 
name to be Campbell. I noticed that he and his family pro- 
nounced it in the orthodox way, sounding the B, whereas all 
the higher classes of Americans, even in New York, invariably 
pronounce the name in the old lowland Scotch fashion as 



230 MY JOURNAL. * 

'Cammel.' They appeal to the poetical authority of the 

song — 

* The Campbells (Cammels) are coming.' 

This is one of those cases in which the language and pro- 
nunciation of the working classes in America are more modern 
than that of the higher classes. My namesake had a good 
new barn, but a very poor house. They say that all thrifty 
farmers build an improved barn first, and an improved house 
afterwards. He had two pairs of horses, one hired servant, 
and a number of children. Of course he worked, and worked 
hard, himself. 

We slept in the railway carriage, and went on during the 
night to Ivanakee, an Illinois country town, originally a French 
settlement. There seem to be now many considerable towns 
On this line of railway. From Kanakee we went along a new 
branch line now being made into a district not hitherto served 
by railway ; and, driving some miles beyond the point now 
reached by the rail, I had the advantage of seeing a good 
deal of the thoroughly rural class of Western farmers. The 
branch line is being made very cheap — it is only to cost 
1,200Z. a mile. The farmers are very keen to get it ; they 
have generally given the land required free, and many of them 
have promised voluntary contributions towards the under- 
taking, for which they have given notes of hand. When the 
time comes for payment they are said to be rather difficult to 
settle with ; they want to stipulate for very cheap rates and 
other advantages. The land about here is mostly rather flat ; 
a great deal of it, and indeed a great deal of Illinois land 
altogether, stands in need of drainage. In many places tile- 
drains are being put in. Altogether this country seems to 
have rather too much than too "little rain. There is sufficient 
slope for drainage when it is attended to. A great deal of 
the land hereabouts was originally given to the Illinois Cen- 
tral Railway, and by them sold to farmers. Most farms seem 
to be small — a good many of them only 40 acres, very many 
80 acres, some 160 acres. Those of 320 acres are compara- 
tively few. The buildings seem generally to be rather poor — 
as if not very much had been done to them since they were 
built by the first settlers ; but a good many trees have been 
planted, good hedges and fences set up, and draining and 
other improvements are going on. The farms where the 



INTERIOR OF ILLINOIS. 231 

railway had been long running generally had improved barns. 
I gather that the farmers have a hard-working time of it ; 
and unless a man has very special advantages he scarcely 
makes money very rapidly. During the Civil War prices 
were very high, and much money was made ; but now prices 
are far too low to bring much profit. The maize crop fetches 
but a very low price, and the farmers have not any very pay- 
ing crops, unless they can make fat cattle pay ; but cattle are 
also at present very cheap in America. To improve very 
much it would require higher farming, which involves a good 
supply of labour ; but the continual opening up of new coun- 
tries in the West takes people off so fast as greatly to interfere 
with the States already settled. The life of the farmers must 
be rather solitary and rough., I visited a German farmer who 
has been a good many years settled in America, but he had 
lived so much alone that he still speaks English very imper- 
fectly, while his wife and mother do not speak it at all. I 
found a good many farms occupied by different members of a 
Scotch family of the name of Bute. They claimed descent 
from ' Lord Bute ; ' but that is a bad shot, as Lord Bute's name 
is not Bute. Most of the English-speaking farmers seem to 
be of American birth — generally men who had come from 
older States and taken up land in Illinois. One was an Eng- 
lishman, originally a mechanic ; he had come from Lancashire 
as a young man, had worked at his trade in the States, then 
tried farming in several places ; eventually settled in Illinois ; 
was lucky in making money during the war and in the pos- 
session of several strong sons — that is the best wealth in 
America — daughters don't pay — this man has now 320 acres 
here, besides a farm in Indiana, which he has rented ' on 
shares ; ' that is, to a man who pays him a share of the crop, 
lie seems still a rough sort of man. I did not see much 
(here, at any rate) of the smart farmers' wives such as Mr. 
Dale lately described, but there are a few large farmers better j 
off than others. They say that the Irish do not do well here ; 
those who have farms generally rent, and, as it was put to me, 
' they rent them too cheap to work them well.' There does 
not seem to be the same objection here to renting farms as 
there is in Xew York. A good many are rented, but only 
for short terms and upon shares — generally paying one-third 
of the produce to the owner. There are no long leases. 
The share system is said to answer well enough. Such rent- 



232 MY JOURNAL. 

ings, however, are only what I may call casual ; there is no 
such thing as an estate bought for the purpose of leasing out 
in farms. Many of the owners are in debt, and pay about 
8 per cent. There is very good provision for educating the 
children ; the law requires that there should be a school 
every two miles. The schools are generally taught either 
by women or by young men just out of college and com- 
mencing their career. Many young women ' teach school ' be- 
fore they get married, and many distinguished men have com- 
menced life by teaching schools. Some say that the drawback 
to education is apparent in the too great number of young men 
who seek to live by their head rather than by their hands. 

The land here is all marked off into townships of six 
miles square, and into mile, half-mile, and quarter-mile 
squares, with unmetalled rectangular roads dividing the 
squares, and generally hedges. The houses are of wood. 
The farmers have not much machinery. Indian corn is not 
reaped by machine, and the farmers can general^ hire a 
machine to thrash out the grain when they require it. A 
very common institution on the farms here is the small 
American windmill ; it is used for pumping water, bruising 
corn, and for other purposes. Water is always to be had 
from wells within easy distance of the surface. This not 
being a fruit country, large fruit trains come up from South- 
ern Illinois in the season, and apples come from the North. 
Prairie chickens are very common hereabouts ; they by no 
means affect remote prairies ; on the contrary, they seem a 
domestic sort of creatures, frequenting the neighbourhood of 
roads, farms, &c. The small American rabbit is also com- 
mon ; the large Jack rabbit, or hare, is found only in the 
West. There is a great abundance of wild ducks almost 
everywhere in America. A small forty-acre farmer had a 
little sugar-mill, such as the ryots have in some parts of 
India, and his neighbours brought their sorghum to be crushed 
into molasses. Most of the farmers grow oats for their own 
use, but I did not see anything of peas and beans ; that is, 
our peas. There are American peas and beans too, but they 
are of a different kind. In Canada I noticed that the best 
bacon was described as pea-fed. Barley does not seem to be 
a common crop in any of the States which I have visited, but 
there is plenty of rye and buckwheat. Illinois is par excel- 
lence the ' corn State ; ' that is, Indian corn, which is always 



INTERIOR OF ILLINOIS. 233 

meant when corn is spoken of in America. They have won- 
derfully improved varieties of this corn here. It shows what 
can be done by selection and cultivation. The flat or rolling 
black soil prevails throughout all the central parts, and indeed 
over most of the State : but at either end is a country of a 
different character. In the south there is much rocky and 
uneven ground, some of it poor ; but much wheat is grown in 
the south. In the north also there is an undulating country, 
with lead mines and other minerals. There also is Elgin 
(they pronounce it 'Eljin'), where the Illinois watches are 
made. For fat cattle the Durham short-horn breed is pre- 
ferred. For milch cows here and all over America they are 
very fond of small Jerseys, and affect that breed much more 
than is usually the case in this country. 

All the land which is private property is taxed according 
to its value, whether it is cultivated or not ; that is, for State, 
county, and local purposes. The county supports some county 
officers, roads, bridges, and the poor. I have been surprised 
to find that there is some sort of poor law in almost every 
State in America. The fact is, the law being English law, 
the English poor law has been imported, and is only more or 
less modified. The townships support schools and local roads. 
There are no commons properly so called ; in remote parts 
there may be open public land not yet appropriated, but it is 
not the practice to reserve any common pasture land in the 
settled townships. The townships here are merely local or- 
ganisations for financial and administrative purposes ; they 
have no basis of common property, like the European and 
Asiatic townships or communes. The counties of some of 
these States are very numerous — as many as a hundred or 
more in a State. They are very little more than areas for 
taxation, and seem to have no county representation or county 
meetings. The townships elect trustees, who correspond to 
the ' select men ' of the Eastern States, and also town con- 
stables and some other officers. There is no county police ; 
only in large towns is there any regular police force. When 
occasion requires the Sheriff acts with a ' posse.' Any con- 
siderable place is formally incorporated as a city, whilst 
smaller places are incorporated as villages. The people are 
very fond of meetings of the citizens ; that is, generally the 
citizens of the townships. Oratory is taught at the Indus- 
trial College. They have also there a mock place of business, 



234 MY JOUENAL. 

where the boys and girls do merchants' work with tokens of 
small value, and so learn to make and lose money. On look- 
ing into the laws of this State I find that it is optional with 
each county to organise into townships for administrative 
purposes. They generally do ; as soon as the country is 
settled the township system conies into play. In order to 
avoid confusion incorporated towns, as distinguished from the 
district called a township, are now called either cities or 
villages. Any populous place of 1,000 inhabitants or upwards 
may become a city ; any place of 300 inhabitants or upwards 
a village. 

To go back to the farmers : they seem to me a quiet aud 
simple but shrewd sort of men, very like what small Scotch 
farmers might be. They generally take in a local weekly 
paper and an agricultural paper. Going into the houses, 
some of them struck me as really very poor and crowded ; 
some had no separate living room, but these are the early 
houses first built in a newly-settled country, and they will im- 
prove, if the people are tolerably prosperous. 

In these Western States I notice a good many French 
names of places, marking a time when, both in India and in 
America, the French almost outri vailed us. Ohio, too, which 
not so long back was a remote and unsettled territory, was the 
scene of French settlement and French military operations a 
long time ago ; and the present Pittsburgh, the great iron centre 
in West Pennsylvania, was the Fort du Quesne of the French. 

After this visit to the interior of Illinois I returned to 
Chicago, and there again made a short halt, and saw some 
more of the sights of that famous place. 

I am more and more struck by the absence of the habit 
of drinking wine amongst the Americans. At the hotels 
here one sees no such thing, nor do they even have on the 
table at meals the lager-bier which is common in the country. 
The bars too seem little frequented, and to have little variety 
of drinks. At some of the railway stations in Illinois nothing 
was to be got to drink ; the sale was not prohibited, but 
' Murphy had been round.' There is, in fact, a strong move- 
ment against drink, which has hitherto been much taken by 
the lower classes in the shape of nips at odd times. Appar- 
ently this abstinence movement has had much success. I 
gathered that most of the intemperance was among what I 
may call the loafing population. 



INDIANA AND OHIO. 235 

Among the uniformities of American ways I notice a 
uniform inferiority and saltness of butter. Americans do 
not seem to know bread-and-butter in our sense, and that 
probably affects their character. They are, I must say, very 
barbarous in their fashion of eating. They seem to order all 
their little dishes at once, and keep digging first into one 
dish and then into another — mixing fish and beefsteaks, and 
swallowing every concoction of vegetables together at the 
end. 

From Chicago I went, by the Chicago, Fort Wayne, and 
Pittsburgh Railway, to Pittsburgh, crossing on the road a 
portion of Indiana and the northern half of Ohio. The 
railroad seemed a capital one, in excellent order, and very 
smooth. After passing the flats at the bottom of Lake 
Michigan we came to an undulating country, with a good 
deal of wood and abundant pasture. We passed a con- 
siderable town called Valparaiso, the seat apparently of a 
thriving woollen manufactory. Soon after the ground again 
became very flat — too flat for drainage — and so continued for 
a very long way ; in fact, as far as a place called Crestline. The 
ground was very much wooded, and only partially cleared, 
with a good many swamps, but no prairie-ground, except 
some large, open, swampy plains. The country here evidently 
suffers from too much moisture and want of drainage. I saw- 
large stacks of draining-tiles at the stations. Still there was 
a good deal of cultivation, mixed with forest. Some of the 
country seemed to resemble part of what I had seen in 
Canada. There were some nice-enough looking places, and 
better gardens and orchards than in Illinois. The Indian 
corn an Illinois man thought not very good. There was a 
good deal of wheat ; cattle pretty plentiful, sheep few. On 
some of the clearings I saw many log-huts, such as I had not 
yet seen in real life ; but some of the towns are improving. 
They get a great deal of timber, and do a great deal of wood- 
work. Evidently in all this part of America there is' very 
great room for much further improvement. The country 
drains so far as it drains at all, into Lake Erie, but there is a 
curious absence of running water. Crestline, where I stopped 
for the night, is about the highest part of the country, and 
immediately after passing it the drainage goes to the Ohio. 
I found a comfortable little hotel at Crestline. I took a walk 
about the town. It seemed a nice, clean country place, with 



236 MY JOURNAL. 

good shops, neat villa-residences, and a quiet, decent-looking 
people. 

In the morning I started again. Almost immediately 
after leaving Crestline the ground began to undulate, and 
eventually became quite hilly, with a good many streams, 
running more or less, but for the most part somewhat 
sluggish. This is the character of the country till we get 
towards Pittsburgh. There is always a great abundance of 
natural wood, principally hard wood, ash and suchlike, but 
comparatively few pines. A very large proportion of the 
fields had still stumps in them, even those in the middle of 
considerable towns. As we got on, however, the homesteads 
improved and became better-looking than most of those 
that I had seen in Illinois. Much of the route, with fine 
woods scattered about, is extremely park-like, and the autumn 
foliage is very pretty ; indeed, altogether it seemed as smiling 
a country as one could wish to see ; that is, for a country 
only partially cleared and cultivated. I began to realise the 
beauty of the American autumn foliage of which one has heard 
so much. The leaves certainly turn to very bright and showy 
colours, such as one never sees in Europe. I saw some very 
good specimens of this kind of thing ; but in this particular 
respect I am told that I am not fortunate in the season, as 
there has not been the sudden change to frost which causes the 
most brilliant hues. 

PENNSYL VANIA. 

In the latter part of this journey we entered the State of 
Pennsylvania. As we came along towns and villages became 
more and more popidous ; in fact, the last hundred miles or 
so into Pittsburgh was full of manufacturing places forming 
what might be called an American Sheffield country joined to 
an American Birmingham at Pittsburgh. The country here 
becomes very hilly. We came into the valley of the Beaver 
River, then into that of the Ohio, then a little way up the 
Alleghany river, crossing which we came into Pittsburgh. 

In the train I met a talkative old Pennsylvania gentle- 
man, very like an Englishman in voice and manner — I think 
Pennsylvanians are often so. He had just come back from 
Iowa, which he thinks a good country ; but he saw there ,a 
good many emigrants moving further West, with their 



PITTSBURGH. 26 ( 

waggons, families, and household goods. He considers Penn- 
sylvanian farming first-rate ; but good land there is very dear 
— a man cannot make much by it. The best of the Penn- 
sylvanian country is in the eastern valleys. The western 
valleys are narrow and precipitous. The Pennsylvanian 
people grow wheat and keep a good many cows, but he seems 
to say that they do not go in very much for dairy-farming. 
The most paying crop of late has been tobacco : they have 
discovered that they can grow it. A very large proportion 
of the well-to-do farmers in this part of the country are 
Germans, called ' Dutch ' by the Americans. There are also 
many Scotch-Irish ; but the regular Irish are not so good. 
The Germans still speak very much among themselves a local 
German, different from the school German. They all under- 
stand German. Most of them are Protestants. Here also 
the farmers generally own their own land ; but some rent, and 
in that case they prefer the share system. It answers very 
well with an honest man, but you are apt to be cheated. He 
has had experience of this system on a farm of his own, which 
has been long rented. The tenant gives him half of the corn 
and hay. He knows a farmer who gives two-thirds ; but then 
the proprietor supplies the seed and the working stock. In 
this part of the country they have no trouble or ill-feeling 
about religious questions, though Catholic priests want to 
proselytise children when they can. I also talked to a Ger- 
man. He came out at the age of eighteen, and is substantially 
an American. He served in the Federal army during the war, 
and saved $500, also made a little money in other ways, and 
now bitterly regrets that he did not put his savings into the 
land. If he had he would have been safe and well off now. 
As it is he seems to have lost his money. He has a good 
enough place as traveller for a machinist, with $3 a day and 
expenses ; but, as he says, there is no knowing how long that 
will last, whereas land lasts for ever. He says the Germans 
work well, and have the great advantage that the women 
work as w T ell as the men, wdiile American women will not 
work. In the West, however, the women are comparatively 
few, and they have enough other work to do. German emi- 
gration has been much checked recently, but many Swedes 
and Norwegians come, and some people who are called Bus- 
sians. I fancy these are Mnemonites. 

Pittsburgh is a very smoky-looking place ; but it is sur- 



238 MY JOURNAL. 

rounded by pretty hills, on some of which are vineyards, and 
•altogether the scene looks a good deal like a European Conti- 
nental town, the smoke apart. My guide-book directed me to 
the Union Depot Hotel, but I found it had been burnt down 
in last year's riots, and I went to the Seventh Avenue Hotel. 
The next day was Sunday, and it struck me that Pittsburgh 
was a singularly dull and uninteresting place on that day ; 
nothing seemed to be going on. The people seem respectable 
enough ; but very many men of various sorts were hanging 
about the streets in a moody kind of way. I can easily im- 
agine it to be the sort of place for an outbreak like that which 
occurred last year. However, at present the place is as full of 
women and children as other places, and one sees wonderfully 
few signs of last year's destruction. The more I walk about 
the place the more smoky and grimy and dull-looking it seems 
to. be. I observe many negroes about, many of the women in 
smart Sunday dresses. The relations between them and the 
whites appear quite good. 

The next day a gentleman connected with the Pennsyl- 
vania Central Railway was kind enough to drive me about the 
town and show me some of the sights. I now learned that 
there was a special reason for the extreme dullness and want of 
motion yesterday. It seems that a great Sunday-closing move- 
ment has just broken out, an old Act of 1794 having been put 
in force against the publicans, or saloon-keepers, as they are 
called in America ; and they in turn have put in force the law 
against everyone else. Almost all the street-cars were stopped 
and every sort of traffic. The saloon-keepers have established 
a ' Detective Association ' to deal with Sunday -breakers, and 
are now the great promoters of the closing movement, which 
is the great question of the day. There used to be very many 
saloons and much drinking in Pittsburgh ; but ' Murphy ' has 
been very active lately, and is said to have had a great effect. 
He is here now. I am afraid it seems inconsistent with what 
I have said in detraction of the Pittsburgh people, but I am 
told that this is a very Presbyterian and Scotch-Irish place. 
Before the war many negroes took refuge here, but it is said 
there are hardly so many of them now as there were then. 

This is a great railway centre. A very inconvenient pe- 
culiarity of American freedom is the great variety of railway 
gauges, which gives much trouble in regard to the through 
lines ; but they have got over this difficulty by a system of 



INTERIOR OE PENNSYLVANIA. 239 

hoisting the carriages off one set of wheels and putting them 
on another. This is very rapidly done ; and in this way, not- 
withstanding change of gauge, carriages are run through for 
long distances. There is a very large traffic between this 
place and Lake Erie. Ironstone is brought in large quantities 
from the Lake regions. We visited one of the largest iron- 
works. Mr. J , the head partner, kindly showed us over. 

He seemed a very business-like and English-looking sort of 
man, though he had never been in England. Erom 2,500 to 
3,000 men, of all nationalities, are employed in the works. 

Mr. J says the Germans are the only men who are saving ; 

all the rest scatter. He thinks the riots last year were, very 
much due to mismanagement, and that it was a mistake to 
bring in the military. ' These people think that they can 
reason.' The negroes do not become skilled workmen — they 
only work as labourers. Workmen's wages are very much 
higher here than in England — more so in some kinds of labour 
than in others. Ordinary labourers do not get so much more, 
but puddling costs almost three times as much ; that, how- 
ever, is partly due to combinations. East of the Alleghanies 
the rates are not so high. Upon the whole the wages he pays 
to skilled workmen are, he says, nearly twice as high as those 
in England. Capital is much dearer in America. He him- 
self long paid 10 per cent, upon very large sums ; now money 
is cheaper. In Pennsylvania the best iron-veins are thin, and 
a good deal worked out. Most of the good ore comes from 
Michigan — from the country upon Lake Superior. The ad- 
vantage of Pittsburgh is the very cheap coal. They have their 
own mines almost immediately adjoining the works. Coal 
costs only about a dollar a ton. They do an immense amount 
of rolling bars, and also manufacture nails upon an enormous 
scale. They have some new and complicated machines that 
only Americans can work. On the whole he believes that 
American workmen do more than English workmen. He was 
very much impressed by Mr. Lothian Bell, who had paid him 
a visit. 

From Pittsburgh I took the train to Philadelphia. We 
very soon got into pretty suburbs, clear of the smoke, and 
passed through a smiling, undulating country, without any 
steep inclines, wood and cultivation alternating. Further on, 
as we got into the Alleghany hills, we passed through some 
deep wooded gorges and up some steep inclines : but we still 



240 MY JOURNAL. 

came upon towns and villages and cultivation, and saw several 
branch railways and some great iron works. Even after the 
last of the steep ascents we never lost the cultivated and in- 
habited country. There was nothing that could be called 
mountains. At the highest point, at Cresson Springs, the 
ground is nearly flat. There is here a pretty park, and the 
place is a sort of sanatorium in the hot weather. It is not 
very cool, but people say that at night they can always sleep 
under a blanket. 

The steep part of the road was going down on the other 
side. There are eleven miles of a very steep incline — very 
wooded and very picturesque gorges, abounding in pines and 
cypresses — but there is nothing nearly so steep as on the 
Indian Ghauts. At the foot of the incline at Altoona there are 
great railway works ; and an hour further we came to Hun- 
tingdon, a nice rural town, where I stayed for the night. I 
found that the bell was going for a Democratic political meet- 
ing, and I went there. The proceedings were opened by a 
brass band. It seems that a musical performance of that kind 
is an important part of American political demonstrations. 
The people were very quiet and orderly. I heard them say- 
ing, ''The Democrats are going to have a good meeting.' 
There was not so much appearance of party feeling as there 
generally is with us. The people seemed very much like those 
of one of our country towns. I noticed one or two negro boys 
in the meeting. They seemed quite at home, and no one 
objected to their presence. The meeting was kept waiting a 
considerable time, and seemed wonderfully patient. At last 
the Honourable — Stinger, the member for the district, en- 
tered, and was moderately cheered. A respectable elderly 
gentleman was called to the chair, and there was then a very 
formal nomination of vice-presidents and secretaries, but I 
could not make out that these functionaries had anything to 
do. The president made a nice little speech. Then the Hon- 
ourable — Stinger came forward and made the speech of the 
evening. I thought it really very good and effective — well- 
reasoned, clear, and even independent, it seemed to me. I 
think he was a lawyer by profession. His great contention 
was that in the days of Democratic rule the country was pros- 
perous, and they governed themselves in a contented way. 
4 You hardly knew,' he said, ' that there was a United States 
Government, except when you went to the post-office fur 



A DEMOCRATIC MEETING. 241 

your letters. Under the Republican Government there is 
want, tramps, execution for taxes, and other evils ; ' and he 
accused the Republicans of extravagance, jobbing, scheming 
for office, and support of rings and monopolies. As to the 
Southern difficulty, he said, ' the Constitutional question and the 
rights of the negroes are settled — no one would go back upon 
that ; but, thank God, the Carpet-baggers have been expelled 
from the South ; disturbance and murder are stopped — the 
rule is given to those who care for the rights of both races.' 
Military rule in the South had been stopped by Congress re- 
fusing appropriations for the army until the troops were with- 
drawn. As regards the money question he was very vehement, 
and denounced both the Greenbackers and the Silver-men. He 
wanted to give the working man a real and not a sham dollar. 
Afterwards, however, he somewhat inconsistently said that he 
would postpone return to specie payments till times were bet- 
ter. He had no objection to the silver dollar, if enough silver 
were put into it to make it worth a dollar. There was no talk 
of the question of protection — that goes of itself, I suppose. 
He then went into State Government affairs, but I did not dis- 
cover that there were any burning questions except personal 
ones, and upon these he was very bitter. He accused old 
Simon Cameron of personal rule and all sorts of jobbing to 
put his son, Don Cameron, and others of his party, into office, 
with the view to raise money for election expenses. Another 
man followed, whom 1 did not think much of — he was more of 
a ranter. On the whole I should say the speakers were more 
demonstrative than with us, and the people less so. There 
was no opposition, and no ' heckling,' nor any vote ac the end 
— merely moderate applause — and then everyone went away. 
The next morning I looked about the place. People were 
talking very quietly. ' I know nothing of politics,' I heard 
some say. None seemed strong or bitter upon the subject. 
I met a stout American of these parts — a rough sort of man ; 
but he owns much land in various parts of Minnesota, and he 
wants to sell. Apparently land speculation has been some- 
what overdone. The Pennsylvania Central Canal runs along- 
side the railway here. I saw no signs of traffic upon it, but I 
am told that it carries a good deal of coal. There are some 
negroes about the town, but apparently none in the country. 
I saw no such thing as a negro labourer on the farms. A very 
important people here are the • Dunkards,' a German religious 



242 MY JOUKNAL. 

sect. They are about the best and most prosperous farmers 
in this country, owning almost the whole of one rich valley. 
They are building a fine High School here, which they are to 
dedicate to the public. It will be taken over as a common 
school. There is a great deal of difference of opinion about 
the school system. One man denied that there are free 
schools, but I found that he meant that they have to pay taxes 
for them ; and he put it that if a man owns a farm he may 
have to pay $20, when a man of equal means, but who only 
rents a house, pays only one or two dollars. In this town 
there are as many as eight churches. The principal one is a 
Presbyterian church, the minister of which has $1,700 (say 
350?.) and a house. Kext comes the Methodist church, the 
minister of which receives $1,200, The Episcopalians are 
few, and unable to support a parson. In villages, I am told, 
you will probably find only two churches, one Presbyterian 
and the other Methodist. 

I took a long walk out into the country, and saw a good 
many farms. The land is not very good about here. There 
is much woodland not reclaimed, but it is being taken up bit 
by bit. ^Notwithstanding much emigration from this country 
to the West they do not seem to suffer from want of popula- 
tion. Most of the farmers hire labour more or less, and 
plenty of farm-servants are to be got. Pennsylvania seems 
to be a great country for raising humans. The principal crops 
are Indian corn, wheat, and a good many potatoes. In all the 
gardens there are vines, but they do not always bear. All the 
country hereabouts is at this moment suffering very much from 
drought. I found that some farms belong to men in the 
town, who work them with hired labour. Some small patches 
are held by men who do other work as well. I talked to such 
a man who had eighteen acres of his own. The hired ser- 
vants seem decent sort of people. On the whole I should not 
say that the people here are of a higher class than the average 
of our rural populations. Many of the children have bare 
feet, but that is probably due to the climate. The ordinary 
cottages seem very good. 

Going on by railway to Philadelphia we passed through a 
long narrow valley, without much population, and then came 
to Harrisburgh, the political capital of the State, and a great 
railway centre. The Susquehanna is a very broad, shallow 
river. From Harrisburgh we passed through Lancaster 



PHILADELPHIA. 243 

County. There the cultivation is very good indeed ; the fields 
well enclosed and carefully worked. I still notice the absence 
of root-crops. I find that this county has the reputation of 
being very highly cultivated ; in fact, Lancaster and Cumber- 
land Counties of Pennsylvania are said to be the best culti- 
vated in America. The land looked very much like goocl 
Scotch or English land without green crops. The farms are 
small or of moderate size, the great majority owned by the 
farmers. Renting, they say, seldom answers. 

It was dark when we reached Philadelphia, and there 
were no cabs at the station, but admirably arranged tramway- 
cars, by which I reached my hotel without difficulty, the lug- 
gage being, as is always the case in America, brought separ- 
ately by a man, who gives you a ticket for it. I put up at the 
Continental Hotel — very central, but expensive. 

In the morning I looked about Philadelphia. Like all 
other American cities it is very rectangular, but some of the 
streets are more European-looking and better filled than any I 
had yet seen in America. Chestnut and Walnut and such-like 
streets run between the Delaware and the Schuylkill rivers, and 
at right angles to them run the numbered streets. The Dela- 
ware is not here a very large river ; there is a tide, but the 
water is fresh, it being a long way from the sea. There is 
said to be not less water in the river than over the Xew York 
Bar ; but the disadvantage is that the shallow places are more 
numerous, and it takes longer to pass all of them. Evidently 
the port is at some disadvantage in this respect. Some of the 
larger steamers do not care to come up. In regard to the 
grain trade Philadelphia is much pressed by Baltimore ; there 
is great rivalry between the two places. I went to see In- 
dependence House and several other sights. Mr. B , a 

countryman of mine, to whom I had an introduction, was 
good enough to drive me about in the afternoon. He took me 
through the famous Fairmont Park. A very fine large park 
it is. The site of the Centennial Exhibition was in this park, 
and certainly a very commanding and good site. Beyond the 
park both sides of a pretty stream have been taken up for a 
continuation of the drive, making it altogether eleven miles 
in length. The country here is not hilly, but undulating and 
pretty. 

I made the acquaintance of Mr. P , a most pleasant 

old gentleman, and an excellent specimen of the best class of 



244 MY JOURNAL. 

Americans of the older generation ; also his son, a prosperous 
lawyer, who has been much in Scotland. They took me to 
see Mr. Gr. W. C , a very successful man, and a great in- 
stitution in Philadelphia, where he has one of the n^ost suc- 
cessful papers in America. I found him most pleasant, and 
ready to assist me. The present American Minister in London 
is a Philadelphia man, and is evidently very much respected 
and looked up to here. The Philadelphia people seem very 
sociable, and very intimate with one another, and altogether 
very agreeable and kind to strangers. 

In the evening I went to a political meeting of the oppo- 
site persuasion from that at which I had assisted at Hunting- 
don. The Governor of this State presided, a quiet, inaudible 
sort of man. Then came the Governor that is to be, who was 
rather dry and financial ; and after him another orator, who 
gave the Republican view of matters very well. As with the 
other side, party questions seemed to be very much personal 
ones. He pitched into the Democrats for having caused the 
war, which was the root of all the evils of which they had 
lately complained. Kow they were recovering, and the great 
thing was to let well alone. If you could only let Congress 
sleep for ten years all would be right. It would be a scandal 
and a shame if, after all the sufferings of the country, the 
defeated Democrats were to come in again. That would mean 
the victory of the South, compensation for Southern losses, 
and so on. On the currency question the Republicans were as 
strong for hard money as the other side had been. The good 
dollar is the poor man's dollar. The working man is a credi- 
tor for the value of his labour, and wants to be paid in good 
money ; the bondholders are the widows and the orphans who 
have invested their little all in United States Bonds ; and 
German and Dutch people, who trusted the United States 
while the English fitted up corsairs to destroy our trade. 
(Great applause.) The Democrats were coquetting with the 
Greenbackers. That would never do. Protection might be 
good or bad for other people, but it was certainly good for 
Pennsylvania. He accused the Democrats of being in favour 
of a tariff for revenue, and said that would be ruin to them. 
This meeting, like the other, was quite quiet and orderly. 
There seemed to be less of row and less enthusiasm than in 
one of our political meetings. 

The city seems a good and flourishing one. It excels very 



PHILADELPHIA. 245 

much in a great abundance of workmen's houses. They are 
generally held by the workmen themselves on a sort of quit- 
rent — what we should call ' feus ' in Scotland. 

The. next day Mr. B took me to see several of the 

sights of Philadelphia. One very new institution here is the 
Safety House ; that is, lire-proof houses, with fire-proof recep- 
tacles, in which valuables are locked away. Anyone who 
wishes thus to secure his valuables, papers, &c, takes a little 
compartment, in which he puts them. I think the Philadel- 
phia people were rather disappointed at my saying that it 
seemed a very good idea indeed, but that it had been very 
long anticipated in one country — viz., China — where almost 
every village possesses a safety house somewhat on this prin- 
ciple. Europeans generally call them ' pawn-shops,' but they 
are really brick, robber-proof, and to some extent fire-proof 
buildings, where the Chinese deposit their valuables, which is 
the more necessary, as in that country very few houses are 
proof against fire and against thieves. As a means, however, 
of providing for the safety of valuables, securities, and other 
papers the improved Pennsylvania safety houses are very use- 
ful indeed. 

I interviewed two or three of the leading railway chiefs 

here. Colonel S , the President of the great Pennsylvania 

system of railways, seems a shrewd elderly man. I had a 
good deal of talk with him. He admits that the great diffi- 
culty in regard to very successful railways in America is, that 
they are so liable to the competition of opposition lines, that 
they cannot expect to pay very enormous dividends ; but, on 
the other hand, he says they are not afraid of most of these 
oppositions. These lines cost, according to him, very much 
more than they were estimated for. They do not pay now, 
and very likely never will. Others say, however, that the 
more recent lines are made cheaper than the old ones. I also 

talked to Mr. G , the very sanguine President of the 

Philadelphia and Reading Railway. All admit him to be a 
clever man ; but his railway is in a bad way nevertheless, and 
he did not seem to find many to share his sanguine estimates. 
He does not admit that the Pennsylvania iron is worked out 
or inferior, as I had been told, though he does admit that the 
iron ore from Lake Superior is better for some purposes. 
With regard to the relative merits of American and English 
iron, he admits that the English deposits in the Cleveland 



246 MY JOUKNAL. 

country are the greatest in the world ; but then he says that 
English iron is full of phosphorus, and won't make into steel. 
It cannot be so used unless some new chemical means are 
found for purging it of phosphorus. The American ore is free 
from phosphorus. Thus they have the advantage in making 
steel, which will tell the more if, in addition to steel rails, it 
becomes the fashion to build steel ships, as is now expected. 
As it is he says the English now make steel cheaper than the 
Americans, but that is only because the quantity required is 
comparatively small. If the consumption of steel in the world 
very largely increases, the English have not the ore to meet 
the demand. This is a great place for the manufacture of 
locomotives and all sorts of railway machinery. There seems 
to be no doubt that the Americans export locomotives to 
foreign countries, which must be due to skill in the manufac- 
ture, not to the material, which is dearer than with us. Mr. 

G is very hot on a plan for inducing the ocean steamers 

to use the anthracite coal which his railway supplies. He says 
that if the furnaces were fitted for it there would be no diffi- 
culty, and they would then find it an immense advantage, the 
coal being very superior and so much cleaner. The difficulty, 
it seems, is to get anthracite coal to use on these steamers on 
the return voyage from England ; but he has specimens to 
show that there is a very good anthracite coal in Wales which 
they might get. It seems that the principal consumption of 
this anthracite is now in New York, Philadelphia, and some 
of the other Eastern cities. There are immense deposits of it, 
but the area is very limited. It occupies an exceedingly small 
space on the coal-map of the United States. 

I have got the statistical atlas of the United States, giving 
an immense amount of information. The Americans go in 
very largely for statistics. At the same time I have not been 
able to make out how they obtain accurate figures. They have 
no system of compulsory agricultural returns any more than we 
have. So far as I can understand their agricultural statistics 
are not founded on reports from farmers, but merely on the 
estimates of qualified observers in connection with the Statis- 
tical Department in the various parts of the country. Then as 
to the geological and coal maps. There are no general surveys 
of the United States ; that is not considered to be a function 
of the general Government, but of each State ; consequently 
the older and more settled States are not surveyed according 



PHILADELPHIA. 247 

to any uniform system. The best surveys are those of the 
1 Territories,' in which the land belonging to the United States 
has been surveyed as United States property. From what I 
could gather I should say that there are some inaccuracies in 
the statistical maps. For instance, I could not make out that 
the Illinois coal-fields are really so enormous as they are there 
depicted — certainly coal is not so cheap in Illinois as it is in 
Pennsylvania. 

I understand that here joint-stock companies are not so 
common as in Xew England, and the reason which has been 
given to me is, that in Pennsylvania corporate bodies are taxed 
on all their property, while private persons are taxed on real 
property only, contrary to the practice of most American 
States which by their Constitution are bound to levy all taxes 
upon every sort of property, real and personal equally. 

In the afternoon I went with Mr. P to his house, 

which is within a few miles of Philadelphia, in a pretty, un- 
dulating country — something like our Richmond, without the 
water. The Philadelphia people do not seem to have consider- 
able country places, like the Xew Yorkers ; only villas and 

moderate grounds. Mr. P "s house and family I found 

extremely pleasant and agreeable. As servants they have only 
quiet-looking maids, no men ; all seems very nice and simple. 
The boys, according to the American fashion, live at home and 

go to school. I met a Mr. M , with whom I had some 

talk about agriculture. He quite agrees with what I have be- 
fore heard, that it does not pay to let land. He says that in 
the German counties the women wiU work in the fields — they 
like it, and will not be prevented from doing so ; but no other 
women do this kind of work. Parts of New England, he 
says, are now much deserted and almost returning to jungle ; 
the people have gone West to better land ; and the poor New 
England land, which sufficed for the Pilgrim Fathers, does not 
pay now. Even in Connecticut, where the land is better, he 
says its value is much depreciated. He compares the Yankees 
(meaning Xew Englanders) to Jews, who will not work with 
then* hands, but expect to grow rich by their heads. 

It seems that Mr. McCulloch (late Financial Secretary) has 
been holding forth on the deficiencies of American agriculture, 
comparing it to that of the Old World as very inferior, and 
saying that agriculture is the only industry to which science 
has not been properly applied in the United States. 



248 MY JOURNAL. 

Some of the people here speak with great contempt of 
the ' shoddy ' fine ladies of the oil regions and the Western 
States, bnt they admit that the St. Louis women are nice — - 
there is a dash of French blood there. The Philadelphia peo- 
ple are different in style and ways both from Yankees and 
New Yorkers. They think the latter loud and purse-proud. 
Cincinnati, one of the pleasantest cities in the Union, is, I am 
told, very German. The Germans there go in very much for 
the pleasures of life according to their ideas, musical and other. 
' What is money without pleasure and comfort ? ' says the 
German. There is now a good deal of society in Washington, 
I am told, but it is somewhat formal, the foreign Ministers in- 
troducing f ofmalities ; and there are many questions of pre- 
cedence and suchlike. 

People here say that the New England servants are quite 
different from theirs. There is more equality in New Eng- 
land; there they have helps rather than servants. Many 
students, male and even female, go out to make a little money 
by service in the hotels during the summer, which accounts 
for the stories told of the waiter interposing to solve scientific 
or social questions discussed at the table. In the West there 
is much more difficulty about servants, and the ladies there 
are said to get prematurely old on this account. In the 
South people have had great reverses of fortune, and aris- 
tocrats were obliged to serve as waiters, while blacks sat in 
the Legislature and their wives rode in carriages. I gather, 
however, that this only happened for a time in one or two 
States. 

Mr. M dwelt very much upon the risk of fever in the 

Southern States, and warned me very emphatically against it. 
My subsequent experience, however, did not confirm this. I 
did not make out that there was much risk of fever in most 
places in the South ; that is, where ' Yellow Jack ' has not 
made his appearance, as is unfortunately so much the case 
this year in the States of the Lower Mississippi. In all the 
lower parts of the Southern States there are tracts which are 
exceedingly feverish in summer ; but few white people live 
there at that season ; and now that the cool weather has come 
in they are quite healthy. 

Next day, on returning to Philadelphia, I went with Mr. 

P to see the Courts. They retain the old English forms 

to a surprising degree ; even old Norman terms which we have 



PHILADELPHIA. 249 

dropped. They have still ' Courts of Oyer and Terminer,' 
and shont out the old Norman ' Oh, yes ! oh, yes ! ' Grand 
juries and all the machinery of English justice are fully main- 
tained, but the Judges wear no robes. Unanimity of the jury 
is still insisted on. I was surprised to see the number of 
Courts at work. The United States Courts, besides dealing 
with breaches of the United States laws, decide cases between 
citizens of different States. The defendant is sued where he 
is found, and in that case the law of the forum — that is, of 
the State where he is — prevails. The United States Courts 
draw their juries from the locality, but from a larger area than 
an ordinary jury area. The Supreme Court of the State is 
only an appellate court ; it has no original jurisdiction. In 
Pennsylvania there is a Court of Common Pleas for each 
county ; and I think I have said that American Counties are 
very numerous. Then in each township there are justices of 
the peace for the summary trial of civil and criminal cases. 
These justices do not always receive salaries, but are always 
entitled to fees. In this County of Philadelphia the Court 
of Common Pleas consists of a Chief Justice and eight 
Judges ; and in rural counties there are at least three Judges 
of the Common Pleas. There are at least a hundred such 
Judges in the State. I understand, however, that sometimes 
laymen are elected to sit as Judges in these courts. In Penn- 
sylvania the pay of the Judges ranges from 600/. to 1,6001. 
per annum. These Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas 
hold their office for ten years, but they are often re-elected. 
I was surprised to find the number of jury courts which were 
sitting — about eight were going on all at once in the same set 
of buildings. In criminal cases not of the very worst class 
the prisoner may be called as a witness on his own side, but is 
not otherwise liable to examination. A man who has pleaded 
guilty can be called. They have two degrees of murder, for 
the first of which only the punishment is death. The sen- 
tence may be commuted by the Governor, who ordinarily acts 
on the advice of a ' Board of Pardons,' composed of the chief 
officials. The rules of extradition between different States do 
not seem to be very well defined. The Governor surrenders 
a criminal on the application of another Governor, but he 
must have jmmd facie proof of guilt, and may refuse, on the 
ground that the prisoner will not be fairly tried by jury, 
or that the demand is made for political objects. Just 



250 MY JOURNAL. 

now there lias been a polemical correspondence between 
the Governors of Massachusetts and South Carolina on 
the subject of the surrender of an ex-Governor charged 
with embezzlement and other offences in his political ca- 
pacity. 

I went to see the proprietary Library here, which seems a 
large and successful institution. I understand that they have 
no free libraries in this State, and do not approve of them. 
I also hear a good deal of expression of opinion that there 
has been too much education. There seems somewhat a 
tendency to decry the Common School system. I am, in fact, 
surprised to find how much of that sort of feeling there seems 
to be here ; but I believe the Common School system was 
not indigenous in Pennsylvania. New England was its native 
land. 

On the last day of my stay here I met Mr. M , who is 

a great enthusiast for the coloured races, and who has written 
for me a number of letters of introduction to people and in- 
stitutions in the South. Like many of the friends of the 
coloured people in these days, he has taken up the cause of 
the Red Indian, whom he and many others declare to be ex- 
ceedingly ill-used in the Territories where they still remain. 
He thinks, on the whole, the negro is more improvable than 
the Red Lidian, because he is not too proud, and is willing 
and anxious to learn ; while the red man is very proud, and 
m on't learn if he can help it. Also he says that the red men 
insist upon the tribal tenure of land, and will not have indi- 
vidual property. A very important fact is, that white men 
go amongst the red tribes, marry red women, and are adopted 
into the tribes, and in this way the race is being crossed and 
may be absorbed ; whereas the whites will not intermarry 
with the negroes nor even with the mulattos. H r ' or some- 
one else whom I met, laments this, for the curio i , ^ason that 
in slave days these mulattos were bred from thr highest and 
best blood of the whites, whereas some of the white people 
come from very low blood indeed. 

I had a talk with old Mr. P about politics. He says 

he used to vote Democrat ; but now, though he is not much 
of a politician, he votes Republican, for he thinks that on the 
whole it is the least dishonest side, and perhaps it is better to 
keep in the people who are in, and whose maws have been a 
good deal satisfied, rather than bring in a new set of cormo- 



BALTIMORE. 251 

rants. He says the original difference between the two parties 
was the question of central power against State power, and 
some very distinguished men were in this sense great Demo- 
crats; but now, he says, the Southern question must be 
settled, and he prefers that the Republicans should settle it. 

There are a great many manufacturing establishments at 
Philadelphia, and a great variety of manufactures ; but I 
had not time to do much in this way. I was obliged to 
confine myself more especially to the things belonging to my 
own trade, and to keep the rest till I returned from the South. 

There are some very sociable clubs of literary and in- 
tellectual people here, who meet periodically at one an- 
other's houses, and I am promised the pleasure of assisting 
at some of these gatherings, if I return later in the season. 
Fashionable New York was quite out of town when I was 
there, and Philadelphia still is so for the most part. The 
winter is the time to see something of the society of Ameri- 
can cities. 

BALTIMORE. 

In the afternoon I started for Baltimore. We passed 
through a pleasant country, with many houses on the banks 
of the river. It was dark before we reached Baltimore. 
The general aspect of the place seemed to be, that in the 
lower parts land and water were very much intermixed. At 
Baltimore I stopped at the Mount Vernon Hotel. It is kept 
on the European and not on the American plan, and seemed 
nice, but on experience I was a good deal disappointed with 
it. They say that this European fashion does not suit people 
here, and that the hotel, which was once good, is not now well 
maintained. 

Com x mg the harbour here with that of Philadelphia and 
other places, I am told that the United States Government 
undertake the charge of rivers, harbours, and works of internal 
navigation. They have made some bad essays in that line in 
Pennsylvania, and the system altogether leads to a good deal 
of jobbing. I am inclined to prefer our own system, under 
which each town and municipality undertakes its own improve- 
ments. 

I have been reading an account of the insolvency laws of 
the different States, now that the general bankruptcy law of 



252 MY JOURNAL. 

the United States has expired. In most States a debtor can- 
not be released .without the consent of all his creditors ; but, 
on the other hand, he has very great protection in the exemp- 
tion from execution of his homestead and the tools of his trade. 
In almost every State a man's homestead — that is, land of a 
moderate valne and acreage — is exempted from execution. 

Late this evening Mr. K , a distinguished member of 

the Society of Friends here, was kind enough to come over 
and take me with him to his house, where I met some pleasant 

people. Mr. K is a well-known philanthropist and friend 

of the negro. Talking of the blacks with the people I met, 
they seemed to take a hopeful view of the condition of the 
negro, and are not severe upon President Hayes' conciliatory 
administration. They recalled the time, less than twenty years 
ago, when slaves were openly marched down to be sold in the 
South ; when it was highly penal to teach slaves to read and 
write ; when a very excellent freedman was imprisoned for 
ten years for possessing a copy of ' Uncle Tom's Cabin.' Now 
the blacks are secure in their freedom ; they have votes ; and 
one party or another will sooner or later want their votes. 
Much, too, is done for their education: here the blacks are 
kept to separate schools, but these schools are good. The re- 
ligious position of the blacks is also very good ; they are excel- 
lent Christians. They have taken to work well. Here in 
Baltimore they have some branches of industry very much to 
themselves, notably caulking ships and brick-making. They 
have, I am told, a ship-caulking company composed entirely of 
coloured men, and managed by coloured men. I was sorry that 
in my stay here I did not manage to see something of this 
company, for this is the only case of which I have heard where 
black men have successfully managed anything of the kind. 
They do not own much land, I am told, but they work well on 
the land in the country about here, as well as in domestic ser- 
vice. They form about a fourth of the population here. I had 
a curious account of their Freemason and other societies. 
Freemason lodges are believed to have existed among them 
even in the days of slavery, unknown to their masters. The 
system is said to have been brought from the British colonies ; 
and the Freemasonry among them was, I am told, made very 
evident during the war. 

Next morning I breakfasted with Mr. G , President of 

the Hopkins University, a man full of information, and to 



BALTIMORE. 253 

whom I owe much kindness and assistance during my stay in 
Baltimore. This Hopkins University is a great recent endow- 
ment, and conducted on the most modern principles. They 
have got over several Englishmen as teachers, including the 

distinguished mathematician Professor S . I made the 

acquaintance of Judge A , one of the United States 

Judges, who has been much employed in the Southern States ; 

and also of Mr. It , formerly a distinguished Confederate 

officer, and now manager of a steamboat and railway company, 
from both of whom I had much assistance. Again I am told 
that the negroes are in a very good position in this State, and 
also in Virginia and North Carolina. The best security that 
they have is when there are two parties among the whites, 
each of whom wants the black vote. In North Carolina and 
Tennessee a great part of the country was Republican, and 
during the civil war went into rebellion against the Confed- 
erate Government. The poor whites owning no slaves never 
cared for the war. But now things are much more divided 
by black and white lines. The white man must now assert 
himself in some way as better than a black. If he does not 
need the black vote he can only do so by beating the black, 
and in some States he does that. My subsequent experience, 
however, leads me to think that this was rather a poetical 
exaggeration. 

From this point Southwards — in the lower country, at any 
rate, and in days before the war — the system of small indepen- 
dent farms was very much superseded by the plantation sys- 
tem. Virginia was a country of plantations ; that is to say, 
of estates cultivated by slaves. In some parts of the coun- 
try, where the crops are not valuable, some of these planta- 
tions are now a good deal deserted. In some of these places 
the negroes can live somewhat lazily on fish and crabs, but in 
most parts they now work well for their living. They can 
be had as labourers on the railways for fifty cents a day, and 
are very docile and good workmen. In South Carolina there 
has been more of extreme reverses and more bitter feeling 
between classes than in any of the States I have mentioned, 
and the difficulties there are greater. Georgia has been from 
the first moderately managed, and is now in a good condition. 
There have not been many complaints regarding Alabama. 
Louisiana is said not to have treated the negroes harshly 
before the war. Mississippi seems to have been and to be 



254 MY JOURNAL. 

the worst State. It is very difficult to ascertain what is now 
the state of things in some of the Southern States, because no 
Republican newspapers whatever are published there. No one 
dares publish such a paper, and if he dared he would find no 
one to read it, for want of education. In many of the coun- 
ties of South Carolina almost the whole population is black. 
There is still not very much education in the South. A good 
deal has been done by Freedmen's Schools established by the 
Northerners, and there is everywhere a State system of educa- 
tion more or less, but it is generally very imperfect. How- 
ever, the blacks are very anxious to learn — more so than the 
lower whites. The Greenback question, I am told, promises to 
be of great advantage to the South, because it is one in regard to 
which there is much competition for the black vote, and this 
brings about a wholesome state of things. In most parts of 
the South the negroes have no difficulty in getting land, if 
they can pay for it ; but in some places there is a difficulty, 
because the whites will not sell, tl linking the possession of 
land a sort of patent of nobility, to which blacks should not be 
admitted ; and everywhere there is the difficulty that the 
negroes do not very much save money to buy it. Many rent 
land on shares, but they seldom own it. After the war their 
idea was, that every man was to have from Government 
twenty-five acres and a mule, but they have not yet got that. 
In Maryland a good many of the blacks do save, and they 
now have considerable sums in the savings bank. 

I asked Judge A how juries are selected. He says 

that by the Constitution every man is eligible to serve on a 
jury, but every man is not drawn in regular roster. In fact, 
fit and proper persons are selected by the proper officer, to be 
put on the panel from which the juries are drawn ; and in 
some of the Southern States the blacks are almost excluded 
from the juries. In Philadelphia I noticed that on most of 
the juries there was one coloured man. It looked as if it 
was so arranged. I asked about the criminality of the blacks. 

Judge A says they sometimes steal a great deal in a small 

way, but they very seldom commit violent crimes. "With re- 
gard to the accusations of rape, which have caused some very 
violent lynching lately, he says that in his experience he has 
known many such accusations, and many people lynched for 
alleged crimes of the kind, but very few regularly put upon 
their trial. He himself only remembers to have tried three 



BALTIMORE. 200 

such cases : in two the accused were certainly innocent, the 
third was a crazy sort of man. In South Carolina they have 
many prisoners, bnt Mly nine-tenths of them are negroes, 
and the State authorities are making a great road with convict 
labour. It is even the practice to let ont the convicts to pri- 
vate persons. As regards prison management there seems just 
as much complaint in the United States as with us. In Phila- 
delphia it certainly was so. They have county prisons, under 
county management, and State penitentiaries, under State 
management. Mr. G took me to see the Hopkins Uni- 
versity. At present they have not spent their money in build- 
ing, but occupy a large house in the town. They teach every 
branch of knowledge, including ' Sanskrit and philology,' 
' Romance of languages,' ' classical languages,' ' biology, chemis- 
try,' &c. The endowment amounts to about a million ster- 
ling, left, I believe, by an Englishman long resident in the 
States. I met here a Mr. A , a young man who is devot- 
ing himself to the history of land tenure in the United States, 
especially in New England. It seems that the United States 
Government never claimed the land east of the Alleghanies. 
There it all belonged to chartered proprietors in the South 
and to townships in the North. Of the chartered estates 
many were forfeited for taking the English side in the Revolu- 
tion. Connecticut was, as it were, settled by squatters, who 
formed independent townships, as little separate republics, and 
the State was formed by the union of these townships. The 
other New England States were principally settled by associa- 
tions, who divided out the land and gave charters to townships. 
Now in all these States almost all the land, whether reclaimed 
or not, is private property ; only some special tracts belong to 
the individual States, none to the United States. Some of 
the deeds constituting New England townships reserve cer- 
tain lands for common use, but these have for the most part 
since been divided up. There are still, however, some places 
where there is a right of common pasture after the crops are 
off the ground, but as a rule there are no commons. In New 
England the counties were certainly a subsequent institution, 
formed by aggregation of townships. The county is now an 
important area for financial and judicial purposes, though not 
for purposes of popular government. It seems more like an 
English union than a county. 

I have been very kindly made free of two excellent clubs 



256 MY JOUKNAL. 

here, the Athenaeum and the Maryland, in "both of which 
there is very pleasant societ}^ and many material comforts. 
The Washington Monument is the centre of fashionable Bal- 
timore. The women and girls in the street seem to me smart 
and well-dressed, without being too flashy. The coimtry about 
is very well wooded ; the town is on moderately rising ground 
— not on an amphitheatre of hills, such as I had been led to 
expect from the guide-book. The Sunday-closing movement, 
by enforcing old laws, is going on here also. I was told a story 
about the famous preacher Mr. Beecher. He was travelling 
in a car upon a Sunday, and said to the driver, ' Would it not 
be better for all parties if you gave up this Sunday traffic ? ' 
' Well,' the man said, ' there is nothing I should like better, but 

we cannot give it up so long as that d theatre there lasts,' 

pointing over his shoulder to Mr. Beecher's church. I went 
to see an Englishman resident in Baltimore. He thinks the 
Hopkins University most excellent and progressive. He says 
that in America there is now a strong tendency to Germanise 
education, and young men go to Germany very much. Presi- 
dent G complains that the English Universities have not 

encouraged Americans. He dwells upon the religious tests 
and other difficulties, and says that is why young men have 
taken to the Continent of Europe rather than to England. 
My English friend says that the expenses in America are 
really not so much as in London, if you go the right way 
about it. The people are not literary in their habits, but still 
English books are very much read and appreciated. He 
says that, though people in America try very hard to make 
money, upon the whole the possession of money is thought less 
of than with us ; a rich man is less looked up to, because 
wealth is less stable and certain than with us. Reverses are 
more frequent, and Americans who have been rich more easily 
return to humble positions. Many of the people whom one 
meets in good American society occupy positions much hum- 
bler than would be thought compatible with association with 
well-to-do people in England. Americans do not think it 
necessary to make provision for their children ; they consider 
that children may well provide for themselves, as their fathers 
did before them. With all their chances of wealth they are 
generally very ready to accept extremely moderate salaries, 
provided they are permanent — that seems clear. 

The weather is now most charming. It has been so, in- 



BALTIMORE. 257 

deed, throughout my tour so far. This place is very bright, 
with nice residential quarters. A peculiarity of Baltimore, 
however, is that there is no system of underground drainage ; 
all the liquid runs in dirty streams through the streets in open 
gutters, while the solid sewage is carried away in carts. The 
system is not very agreeable to the senses, but I am not sure 
that it is not much more wholesome than our underground 
system. 

I passed a Sunday here. This is a great church-going 
place. Yery many nicely-dressed people about the streets. I 
notice very many well-got-up negroes and well-dressed ne- 
gresses. I still cannot make out who all these well-dressed 
blacks are. They are not clerks or shopkeepers. I understand 
that there are very few negro clerks or dealers. They are not 
generally superior mechanics. All I can learn is that they 
have certain special occupations, and that a great many of them 
are waiters, keepers of eating-houses, and so on. 

I had a visit from two gentlemen of the Democratic per- 
suasion, Senator "\V and Mr. H , a man who has served 

in important positions abroad. Their opinion is, that the mil- 
itary occupation of the South enabled the Carpet-baggers to 
play dreadful tricks before high heaven — to falsify the elec- 
tions, and so return the candidates of the minority. Xow 
things are, they say, on a fair and safe footing ; the negroes 
are free and prosperous, and rights are secured to all — all that 
is necessary is to leave the Southern States alone. They say 
that after the war the blacks were helpless ; their old masters 
did everything for them, and enabled them to cultivate the 
land upon the system of shares. The owners did so at a loss, 
but they were forced into it by circumstances, and before very 
long with much difficulty they succeeded in raising 3,000,000 
bales of cotton, an amount which has since been very largely 
increased. The negroes felt that they could not live without 
this assistance. A friendly feeling sprang up again — in fact, 
it never was lost. During the first two years after the war the 
system was settling down very satisfactorily, and all would 
have gone well but for the new Constitution forced upon the 
South by the victors, and worked by the Carpet-baggers sup- 
ported by the military. Xow these abuses have been termi- 
nated, things are improving, and the negroes are becoming 
tolerably prosperous and well-off. They are not kept bound 
to their masters by debt ; in fact, they get very little credit. 

17 



258 MY JOURNAL. 

Generally the plant of the farms, the animals, the seed, and 
every tiling else, is supplied by the master. I am told that in 
Virginia and Maryland the estates are not very large ; they are 
not what we should call great estates, but really large farms of 
from 600 to 1,500 arable acres. The great Valley of Virginia 
and some of the Western Virginian country is fine land. 

The militia system of the United States is founded on the 
old English militia. There are some black companies, but not 
very many. In Maryland and all the States of the South 
townships scarcely exist at all. The organisation is by counties. 

I took a walk with Mr. G to the high land overlooking 

the harbour. The harbour here is in the channel of a small 
river. The Chesapeake is a short distance below. It is only 
a moderately good harbour, but then there are great facilities 
for getting to sea ; there is not the long and difficult river 
which lies between Philadelphia and the sea. 

Talking of the public colleges I asked if blacks were ad- 
mitted. I was told that the question solves itself, for if blacks 
were admitted the whites would not come, and therefore it is 
that separate colleges have been provided for the blacks. I 
have not found anyone who at all takes in the idea of the races 
drawing nearer by intermarriage. All seem to regard the 
blacks as a servile and inferior race. Mr. M , whom I men- 
tioned above, asserted that the laws of Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut still make mixed marriages illegal ; and others whom 
I have asked have not been able to deny the statement ; but I 

have not verified it yet. Mr. G lived three years in San 

Francisco. He says that the climate there is very superior to 
this. It is not nearly so hot in summer ; there is a delicious 
breeze, and the thermometer seldom rises above 80°, while in 
wintei snow is very rare. There is a good deal of rain in 
winter, but the Californian climate is very dry in summer. The 
great Wheat Valley lies between the coast range of hills and 
the great interior range. The fruit country is upon the slopes 
of the higher range. Inland the summer is very hot — almost 
as much so as in the Eastern cities. California, in fact, is an 
immense country. It is almost as long as the tract from Maine 
to Georgia on the eastern side. There are a good many rowdy 
people in California, but society there is not nearly so bad as 
it is sometimes represented. In San Francisco there is pleas- 
ant society, and a great many people who go to church and are 
quite civilised Christians. 



WASHINGTON". 259 

The last evening I spent at Baltimore I found a very lively 

and agreeable party at Mr. R 's house ; the people rather 

American in their style, but very pleasant for all that. 

I have picked up here a good many ideas and opinions as 
regards the Southern States. It remains to be seen how far I 
shall verify them when I get there. 

WASHINGTON. 

~Next morning I started for Washington — a little more 
than an hour's run from Baltimore. I hope to come back to 
Washington at the time that Congress meets ; meantime I 
have only gone there for two or three days on my way South. 
At the Baltimore station (or depot, as the Americans always 
call it) I found that the President and Mrs. Hayes were pas- 
sengers by the same train. I was fortunate enough to be 
introduced to them, and travelled with them to Washington, 
thus having the opportunity of a good deal of talk with the 
President. He travelled without any show, like any other 
passenger, but an ordinary passenger-carriage was reserved for 
him and his party, and a little attention was paid to them by 
the railway officials. There was no crowd and no demonstration. 
Whatever may be said of the President's political character, I 
think that all who come in contact with him are agreed that 
he is what we should recognise in England as a gentleman, 
and that his wife is very much a lady. Socially they are cer- 
tainly exceedingly well fitted to fill the position in which they 
are placed. I have heard the President spoken of as politi- 
cally weak, but I am inclined to think that this opinion comes 
more from the members of his own party, who disapprove his 
measures of compromise, than from anyone else. It is not for 
me to express an opinion on this subject, and I should not like 
to retail all he said ; but this I will say, that I have not met 
in America a man more pleasant to talk to. 

The Baltimore papers contained accounts of his Southern 
policy, said to have been obtained from him in interviews, and 
I ventured to ask whether these accounts are authentic. He 
said that for the most part the statements to which I alluded 
were true enough in one way, but that the accounts of alleged 
interviews were not true. The newspaper people interview 
those who have come out from the President, pick up some- 
thing, put into his mouth what they think he may probably 



260 MY JOURNAL. 

have said, and so make up their stories. lie was reported to 
have said that until quite recently there had been, under the 
present regime, very little violence and outrage in the South ; 
and I could not help calling his attention to some very serious 
outrages which had been reported within the last week or two. 
He says that my experience in that respect has been excep- 
tionally unfortunate : this is election-time, and the most is 
made of what occurs. 

The President takes a very favourable view of the position 
and prospects of the negro. He thinks the present race of 
negroes are not equal to white men ; but then, according to 
his views, the qualities of mankind are very much a matter of 
climate. Whether white or black, he thinks men are inferior 
in hot climates. The American blacks have not yet had time 
to develop the higher human qualities nor to acquire much 
land, but he hopes they will. As showing how improvable 
they are, he tells a story of a number of blacks who, in the 
last century, followed the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, 
when the latter got grants in Ohio, which is the President's 
own State. Eventually Ohio was declared to be free territory, 
and these negroes settled down as free men — they and their 
descendants have become farmers, and good ones — they are at 
this day liked and respected by their neighbours, and are in 
every way good and prosperous citizens. He hopes that the 
Southern blacks will do likewise in the course of two or three 
generations. As regards the misconduct and outrages some- 
times attributed to blacks, he says that their character cannot 
be so bad as some would now paint it ; and as proof of that he 
points to the fact that during the war the Southern whites left 
their families and their property, and everything that was dear 
to them, in charge of and at the mercy of the blacks. Yet 
these blacks never rose against their masters' families, and, as 
a rule, never did any harm whatever, in spite of all the oppor- 
tunities they had during a protracted war. I have since 
heard this statement repeated in the Southern States — some- 
times, no doubt, with a view to showing how good the masters 
had been. But at any rate there seems to be no doubt of the 
fact that the blacks, generally speaking, never did rise for 
plunder and outrage till they were raised by the actual pres- 
ence of the Northern armies. This reminds me of what 1 was 
told by Mr. M at Baltimore, when I appealed to his ex- 
perience to explain why the negroes of the United States had 



THE PRESIDENT. 2G1 

settled down so easily to labour, while we had so much trouble 
in Jamaica and elsewhere. He said that the United States 
negroes are long domesticated, tamed, civilised, trained to 
regular work, and no longer savages from Africa. Some of 
the West Indian negroes are much more savage and uncivilised 
and, he believes, more difficult to manage. At some work at* 
the Isthmus of Panama, where different classes of blacks were 
working together, the Jamaica blacks were notoriously trouble- 
some. Also he says that the situation is vastly different in a 
country where, after all, the blacks are in the minority. There 
they learn to behave well ; but their conduct ma} 7 be very dif- 
ferent when they are in the great majority, with comparatively 

few white men. It will be remembered that Mr. M is a 

Southerner; and my subsequent experience of parts of the 
South where the negro population is very greatly in the 
majority hardly bore out this view. 

A gentleman who travelled with us remarked that there is 
a curious clashing between the United States laws and the 
laws of the particular States, especially in South Carolina, 
where there has been a riotous interference with the United 
States laws. United States officers have arrested the ring- 
leaders, upon which the local authorities have arrested the 
Republican leaders, on accusation of offences against the laws 
of the State. There is, he says, a good deal of friction, not 
only on account of the difficulty of executing the electoral laws 
in the South, but also on account of the internal revenue laws ; 
and the difficulty is increased for this reason, that, owing to 
protection and bad trade, the customs revenue has been very 
much reduced, and the United States Treasury is more and 
more driven to depend upon the internal revenues. 

Judge A gives almost as bad an account of the Carpet- 
baggers as the democrats do. After the war, he says, all the 
Union soldiers who had property, or homes, or sweethearts 
went home ; the bad ones, who had none of these ties, re- 
mained and undertook the government of the country. It 
really was necessary to take the Southern States out of such 
hands. 

I asked the President as to the extent to which the white 
people of the Northern States had suffered during the late bad 
times from want of work, remarking that I had not seen so 
many signs of distress as 1 had expected. He said that things 
are better now that people thrown out of work have been 



262 MY JOURNAL. 

absorbed, partly by going to agriculture, and partly because 
there really lias been a turn for the better in business ; but 
during the worst times there was a great deal of distress even 
among some of the better class of mechanics, who actually 
could not get employment. I gather, however, from many 
quarters that most of the people who were very conspicuous 
for want of employment, and who appeared about the country 
as tramps of a very troublesome and dangerous character, 
were not so much honest workmen as a sort of people who, 
during the times of war and high prices, were able to get 
employment of a light and easy character. In these days peo- 
ple can only live by really hard work, and that is just what 
the tramp class wholly object to ; consequently very many of 
them have been thrown upon the country. 

I had a good deal of talk with the President on the Silver 
question. lie says that the American production is now 
greater than ever, not only on account of the discovery of new 
lodes, but because people have learnt to extract the ore so 
much better than they did. It is found that immense quan- 
tities of inferior ore which had been heaped up as refuse can 
now be worked so as to extract silver at a profit. Labour is also 
very much cheaper than it was ; and the New South-Pacific 
railway lines, going right into the heart of the metalliferous 
regions, will probably open up a good deal of new production. 
Altogether he thinks this year's production will be larger than 
it ever has been, and that the production will continue to be 
large. Mr. Hayes favours the plan of putting more silver 
into the dollar — this is the way to give honest money, without 
sacrificing their production of silver. Much gold is also pro- 
duced in America, yet it is a fact that at this moment gold is 
coming from Europe. 

I asked the President whether he shared Mr. McCulloch's 
views as to the want of good farming in America. He said 
there was, no doubt, something in them, but at the same time 
he added (and I think very truly) that it may, under certain 
circumstances, be better and more profitable to half -farm two 
hundred acres than to farm very well thirty acres. All de- 
pends upon the abundance or otherwise of land and the cir- 
cumstances of the case. As it is, he says, in parts of Penn- 
sylvania the farmers manure quite plentifully, and their agri- 
culture is as good as could be desired. He says that they have 
very fine breeds of cattle in Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, 



WASHINGTON. 263 

and that beef promises to be a very important product and 
export. He mentioned a curious, and to me unexpected fact, 
that the most valuable produce of the United States is hay. 
After hay comes Indian corn, then cotton, then wheat and 
tobacco. As regards the complaints I had heard respecting 
education rates and the system of free education, he says I* 
must necessarily come across grumblers. The well-to-do 
people, who can educate their children privately, do not like 
the heavy taxes they have to pay for education ; but the poor 
people would tell a different tale. 

We spoke of the yellow fever now raging in the South, 
and of* which such terrible accounts are in all the papers. I 
remarked that, though the mortality was very sad, still, used 
as I had been to reckon great calamities by millions, the total 
loss by yellow fever in the United States — now stated at about 
10,000 — did not seem so great in so large a population. He 
admitted this to be true ; but then, he says, the yellow fever 
is principally a disease of towns, and it has struck with tre- 
mendous severity some particular places, such as Memphis and 
a few other places which he named. There has not been a 
great mortality in the country districts. 

I remarked to Mr. Hayes that I had noticed the quietness 
of American meetings, the absence of interruptions, and the 
contrast in that respect to a good many meetings which I had 
lately seen in England. Neither the President nor Mrs. 
Hayes have ever been in Europe ; but Mr. Hayes had been in 
Canada, and he said that there he had remarked that the style 
of political meetings resembled what I told him of our Eng- 
lish meetings. The Canadians seem to have copied us in that 
respect. lie noticed that in Canada a great deal of noise and 
interruption took place, and that some of the speakers were 
unable to get a hearing. 

The country between Baltimore and Washington seemed 
poor and uninteresting ; in fact, they say it is one of the 
poorest parts of the United States. The entrance to Wash- 
ington is through a poor part of the town. The Capitol is 
very conspicuous ; from a distance it looks like St. Peter's at 
Pome. When we get well into the town it improves very 
much indeed ; very fine, wide avenues have been laid out, 
radiating from central points ; and there are some tine streets. 
The place was laid out by Washington himself in his capacity 
of engineer and surveyor. It seems that he had great ideas 



264 MY JOURNAL. 

of the future, and a sort of mania for broad streets and mag- 
nificent designs. The accounts I heard of him remind me of 
our engineer-soldier, Lord Napier of Magdala. Washington 
meant the principal part of the city to be on the side where it 
is not now, but land speculators took up the land and ran up 
the prices so high that people built on what he meant to be 
the back part of the town ; that is now the City of Washing- 
ton, with the Capitol, as it were, looking away from it. Some 
modern Americans grumble about the width of the Washing- 
ton streets, and say that the vastness of the place dwarfs the 
buildings. I must say that I think Washington was quite 
right. In this climate, where trees grow easily, broad avenues 
are very effective and pleasing; and although the City of 
Washington was for upwards of half a century a complete 
failure, and until a few years ago was not at all successful, it 
has made immense strides of late years, and now, to my taste, 
is by far the best city in America. It is not only well laid 
out, handsome, and clean, but it has that which is altogether 
wanting in all other places in America that I have seen, viz., 
good pavement. All the principal avenues and streets are 
laid down with excellent asphalte pavement ; so that instead 
of being the worst it is the best-paved town in the world that 
I know ; that is, so far as the principal streets go. There are 
a number of very fine public buildings, many of them of 
superb granite and marble. 

I went to the Biggs House Hotel, one of the principal. 
It seems good, and is very central. 

Judge A kindly took me to see some of the official 

people. One of the first whose acquaintance I made was 
General E — : — , the Commissioner of Education, a gentleman 
to whose kind assistance I owed very much in my subsequent 
tour. Before we got to talk of education we had some con- 
versation with a black preacher from the South, who came in 
on business. Like the few educated blacks I have met so far, 
he takes the line of saying that the negroes have scarcely had 
fair play. He says there is a combination not to let them buy 
land, also to keep wages unduly low. According to him, 
under the system of cultivation on shares it most frequently hap- 
pens that after a season or two the cultivators quarrel with the 
proprietors, and go off somewhere else ; they are very migratory. 
This man, though he calls himself a preacher, is really a book- 
canvasser, and I doubt his being a very good authority. 



WASHINGTON. 265 

Coming to the question of education, I was given to under- 
stand that a good enough education law exists in every State, 
or almost in every State, but it is not properly carried out. 
The excuse is that ' the Radicals have spent all the money,' 
and there is none now available. The fact of the absence of 
money is in many instances but too true. Texas seems tcr 
have some peculiar views in regard to education. Wherever 
there is a large black population it seems to be preferred by 
both parties that both schools and churches should be separate, 
and not mixed ; only the street and railway cars and political 
meetings are common to both races. At first a good many 
Northern men were opposed to emancipation, because they 
thought that the emancipated blacks would overrun the 
North. As a matter of fact it has turned out just the con- 
trary, many of the Northern blacks having now gone South : 
they prefer the climate. 

General E 's opinion about the intellectual capacity of 

the negroes is, that they are bright as children ; but when 
yo;i get to the higher education they want the ratiocinative 
and mathematical faculty, and are not the equals of white 
men intellectually. They would thus seem to be the opposite 
to the Hindoos, who have a great turn for metaphysics and 

everything ratiocinative. Judge A , however, does not 

agree with this view. He says that when he was a boy he 
had a black class-fellow who was the best mathematician in 
the class. The comparison, however, becomes very difficult, 
since very many coloured boys are really mulattos. 

I am told that in the United States army there are still 
a considerable number of regular black troops — about two 
thousand of them. 

I talked with Judge A about protection. He is very 

strong against the present system, and says that it leads to 
interminable abuse. He tells a story of some interest which 
went in for protection of copper, and by pressing in the 
Legislature got the protection which they wanted ; but no 
so'oner was that given than a host of other cognate interests 
started up, so that in the end this one protection led to new 
protection in no less than seventeen different cases. The fall- 
ing off of the customs revenue is caused not only by the dull 
trade, but also by protecting to so great an extent as to kill 
much of the trade. It is the fashion in America to protect 
even raw materials, such as the wool which is absolutely 



266 MY JOURNAL. 

necessary for the American woollen manufacture, and which 
the country does not produce in sufficient quantity, and the 
iron which is so necessary for cheap ships. One protection 
leads to another, and so everyone is protected. People in 
America have hitherto gone in for dearness — high wages and 
dear living — not for cheapness ; and that is why newsboys and 
other distributors charge exorbitant prices. Evidently the 
Americans need some relaxation of their system, both for the 
sake of revenue and for the moral effect upon the country of 
a little free trade. 

Next day I went to see the Capitol. It is a very fine building, 
but the decorations are in somewhat old-fashioned style ; the 
columns are very florid, and some of the quasi-classical paint- 
ings inside might, I venture to think, with advantage be put 
into the fire. I also went through the markets, and saw some 
other sights. 

Our Minister at Washington very kindly gave me some in- 
troductions. I called on Mr. Evarts, the Secretary of State — 
a spare, Yankee-looking man, apparently very shrewd and 
wide-awake. He has been in England and seen the world and 
a good many of the men of the Old World. I gather from his 
talk that the Americans would not be sorry to have Canada if 
it came into their arms. Afterwards I met the Attorney- 
General, who is, in fact, the Minister of Justice — a very pleas- 
ant-looking man and dignified lawyer, whose style and appear- 
ance would pass exceedingly well in the higher places of West- 
minster Hall. He was good enough to take me a drive in 
the afternoon. He tells me that American lawyers are almost 
all local. There is no considerable Bar at Washington ; and 
when important cases come up to the United States Supreme 
Court from a distance, the lawyers generally come up with 
them. He admits that the execution of the United States 
Revenue laws causes considerable friction ; but I afterwards 
found that the Revenue officers will hardly admit this, and 
point to the cheapness and ease with which their revenue is 
collected. I have been much inquiring for some compendious 
comparative account of the Constitutions and laws of the dif- 
ferent States, but I find that nothing of the kind exists. The 
lawyers seem to be a superior class of men, but very few of 
them know anything of the laws of any State except their own. 
There is very little regular codification properly so called, only 
the Revised Codes, or rather compilations, which are published 



WASHINGTON. 2G7 

from time to time in most States. There does not seem to be 
very much publishing enterprise. I found nothing corre- 
sponding to our shilling almanacs — ' Whittaker ' and the rest — 
with the mass of information which they contain. Last year 
one almanac, called ' SpoffoixTs American Almanac,' was pub- 
lished at a much higher price, and certainly contains a good 
deal of information arranged in a somewhat haphazard way. 
If the publication were continued it might be worked into the 
semblance of an English almanac, but it seems doubtful 
whether it is to be repeated. 

In the course of our drive this afternoon we went through 
a very beautiful park attached to the Military Hospital. In 
this park the President has a good cottage ; it is his only offi- 
cial country residence. It seems that every United States 
soldier who has«served for twenty years has the right to live 
in the Hospital here, on payment of a very small sum. 

The following day also I spent in Washington. General 

E introduced me to the Secretary of the Interior, Mr. 

Schurz. He is a German, and very German-looking, but has 
taken a very strong and high position in the States. The 
Minister of the Interior has under him the public lands and 
the Indians, as well as education, agriculture, and other depart- 
ments. Of the Indians Mr. Schurz has no very great opinion. 
He thinks they are very impracticable, and looks to their 
eventual disappearance or absorption. In many places tame 
Indians are settled quietly enough, but they do not improve 
much. The wild Indians have not a fan* chance, for white 
people will invade their lands, and often treat them very un- 
fairly. These are the Border white adventurers known as 
' Squall Whites.' I have heard of many cases in which the 
Indians have been the aggressed upon. 

I also made the acquaintance of General "W , the Com- 
missioner of Public Lands, and got papers from him showing 
the American system. A man who takes up a homestead or 
purchases at the low upset price must swear that he takes it 
for himself, and not to sell ; but no doubt these statements are 
sometimes false. In some of the further tracts large quanti- 
ties of land may be taken up ; and in the country marked 
' desert ' a good deal has been done by large grantees, who have 
constructed works of irrigation. Members of Congress some- 
times manage to get Bills passed to sell certain tracts without 
reserve. In Oregon and some of the pastoral States, land not 



268 MY JOURNAL. 

purchased is let out in large tracts on temporary leases. I am 
told that the fashion in those countries is to buy or take up as 
homesteads comparatively small tracts which contain the 
springs, without which the country cannot be settled, and then 
the holder feels pretty secure that no one will buy the water- 
less land which he holds at a cheap rate for grazing his flocks. 
I believe that a good many Englishmen have in this way settled 
in Oregon and taken to sheep-farming in the Australian style. 

I observe that in all the public offices here, almost without 
exception, everyone has some military rank ; not only the 
heads of departments, but the very clerks are generals, colo- 
nels, and majors ; some are doctors. I fancy this is not only 
because, owing to the civil war, everyone had military rank, 
but also because in many cases office has been given as a re- 
ward for military service. 

I visited the Patent Office, a very magnificent building ; 
but it has suffered from fire, to which everything seems sub- 
ject in this country. The Americans are very proud of their 
patent system, which they think more effective than ours. 
The collection seems to be beautifully kept. I also visited the 
Smithsonian Institute, founded by an Englishman — a beautiful 
place, in beautiful grounds. I observe that in this country 
public institutions are generally very well kept. The natural 
history and other collections seemed to me to be an agreeable 
contrast to some of the rickety and moth-eaten animals of the 
British Museum. Also, whereas many of our libraries are 
very full of trash, obtained under the system which gives cer- 
tain libraries a right to all books, the American libraries are 
made up exclusively of carefully selected books, and are gene- 
rally very good indeed. 

I visited the office of the Geological Survey, which is not 
only an office for surveys, but has a department for ethnological 
and other specimens ; in fact, there is a great collection of the 
curiosities of the United States, including very many archaeo- 
logical remains. There are some very fine specimens of Indian 
pottery, and models of Indian houses and villages. The col- 
lection is in capital order. It is well worth another visit. I 
met Dr. F. , President of the Medical and Sanitary So- 
ciety, and a great man upon anthropological subjects. He be- 
lieves the negroes to be an inferior race. As regards the mu- 
lattos, though they are often fine and handsome, he believes 
them to be a sterile race, and not likely to last. 



THE EE VENUE SYSTEM. 269 

I went to the Treasury, and was introduced to Secretary 
Sherman. He was very civil and kind, and I had some talk 

with him ; after which he handed me over to Mr. R , head 

of the Internal Revenue Department, who told me a great 
deal about Revenue affairs. 

Mr. Sherman avows that he is not in favour of a silver 
coinage. He keeps the coinage pretty nearly down to the. 
minimum of two million dollars per month which the law 
requires. They can use, he says, fifty millions as small coin ; 
and when they go beyond that they must either limit the issue 
or put more silver into the dollar, he thinks. 

The Revenue officers seem confident in their internal reve- 
nue system. !S T o doubt there is some friction and a good deal 
of smuggling ; but after all the revenue is collected at a cost 
of Si per cent. — less, they say, than it costs to collect the same 
revenue in England. Tobacco is more frequently smuggled 
than spirits ; but it costs smugglers more when they are de- 
tected. The duty on tobacco has been raised to 2± cents (say 
Is.) per pound. That does not seem heavy from our point of 
view, yet there is a good deal of agitation to reduce it. Leaf- 
tobacco is not taxed unless it is sold ; every man is free to 
consume his own production. In Ohio boys often grow a 
patch for profit, and no doubt sell it to then neighbours. The 
German Government have had a commission of inquiry here, 
but they are rather disappointed. They think the American 
system will hardly do for them, as they want to tax the leaf. 
They do not think they will get a sufficient revenue if they 
only tax the manufactured tobacco. If we are ever driven to 
fresh taxation of the people in India these inquiries of the 
German commission would be very usef ill to us, for our situa- 
tion there is very much the same. The difficulty of taxing 
tobacco in India is that it is so very commonly grown, and is 
scarcely manufactured beyond drying and pressing the leaf. 

In the United States spirits are taxed 90 cents ; that is, 
a little more than 3s. 6d. per gallon, as against 10s. in this 
country. Beer is charged one dollar per barrel of 32 gallons ; 
native wine is not taxed at all, except some small tax on 
licenses for sale. There are taxes upon matches, patent 
medicines, and a few other articles ; but these yield only a 
very moderate income. In fact, the internal revenue is almost 
entirely derived from spirits and tobacco. It has gone on 
increasing till this last year, when there has been a consider- 



270 MY JOUENAL. 

able decline, which is attributed to bad times. The Revenue 
officers do not greatly attribute loss of spirit revenue to 
' Murphy,' but they say that the people drink less than they 
formerly did, and if they drank as formerly the revenue would 
now be doubled or quadrupled. Temperance has checked 
it. Mr. Sherman thinks that from a financial point of view 
tea and coffee might be taxed ; but there is a strong public 
feeling in favour of a free breakf ast-table ; so they camiot de- 
mand this ; but they tax sugar, and that protects the native 
sugar-growers. 

Of the public officers some are rather poorly paid ; but the 
army is, I believe, paid higher than ours, and officers have 
the advantage that the admirable education, of which I saw 
something at West Point, is given to them by the State gratis. 
Some, however, think that that education is too severe and 
monastic — it runs too much in one groove. 

This evening, returning from the unfinished Washington 
Monument, I saw by far the most magnificent sunset that I 
have ever seen in my life anywhere, or ever expect to see. 
There was a lurid light in the clouds which I can only call 
tremendous, and the reflection on the windows of the city 
and the Capitol on the other side made me believe that they 
were on fire. I am sure the painter who painted such a scene 
would be set down as a madman. 

Next day I called upon Dr. B , the Surgeon-General. 

Yellow fever is, of course, the great subject of inquiry and 
discussion at present, but nothing certain is arrived at regard- 
ing its origin and propagation. I have noticed that there are 
places where strict quarantine has been established, on account 
of the present prevalence of the disease ; but I gather that the 
quarantine rules are very local and unsettled. I am told that 
in the hotter Southern States, owing to the climate, the cattle 
suffer a good deal from diseases, Texan fever and the like, 
quite different from our Northern cattle diseases, and to 
which cattle in the North are not liable. These diseases 
affect certain breeds of cattle differently from others. In the 
South the short-horns are much affected, while the Jerseys 
are comparatively little touched ; and the Indian Brahminee 
breed, of which there are a good many in the South, are quite 
free from these diseases. Some of the States have established 
quarantine rules for Texan cattle. 

I called on General M|yer, chief signal officer, a very 



THE AVEATHER DEPARTMENT. 271 

important functionary among tlie new centralising institutions 
of tlie American Government^ The office is, strictly speak- 
ing, a military one, and the General has a corps of highly- 
trained men stationed all over the country, through whom 
he is enabled to establish a very trustworthy Intelligence 
Department; but in reality the Signal Office is the great 
Meteorological and Weather Prediction Department — the 
greatest of the kind in the world, I imagine. In this office 
the infant science of meteorology is being worked out. The 
most important result is that prediction of storms which we 
have begun to appreciate. America seems to have a specialty 
for sending us storms, and the warnings we receive, nomi- 
nally from the New York Herald and other papers, really 
come from the Signal Office at Washington. The officers of 
the department say that their predictions prove right in 80 per 
cent, of the whole, and that the balance is negative ; that is 
to say, they never fail to announce a storm or give warning 
of a storm which is not developed somewhere ; but, to be on 
the safe side, they sometimes warn places of storms which 
happen to miss the particular place. However, there has just 
been here a very great and rapid storm, which came down the 
coast from the South, and which I have not had occasion to 
mention, because it passed over Washington in the night. 
It does appear that the warnings which were given of this 
storm were rather too late ; and notwithstanding what we owe 
to the department in England, and the civility with which I 
was treated, I could not help delicately hinting at the saying, 
' Physician, heal thyself.' It seems that most of the storms 
are born about the commencement of the Gulf Stream, off 
the coast of Florida ; and sometimes it may happen that, like 
a shell which explodes almost at the mouth of the gun, these 
storms may burst in upon the States before much warning 
can be given, as was, in fact, the case in this instance. The 
department here claims to be establishing certain laws as to 
the rotatory character and direction of storms. They have a 
wonderful set of self-registering instruments, and produce 
daily charts of the weather all over the country, besides peri- 
odically making up weather charts of the whole Northern 
hemisphere from observations taken at the same time, and 
transmitted by telegraph. 

In the late storm the fall of rain here in a very short 
time exceeded three inches. The rainfall for the year is 



272 MY JOURNAL. 

heavier than ours ; but though well distributed it seems to fall 
in heavier plumps than with us, so that there are not nearly so 
many hours of rain. During the late storm some of the crank 
American steamers were wrecked in the rivers and estuaries ; 
in fact, large numbers of craft were wrecked in the river 
below this. The officers here know all about our meteoro- 
logical observations in India ; and, in fact, I find that hi all the 
departmental offices they have a very thorough knowledge of 
what we have been doing in India, and know well our officers 
and their publications. At Baltimore Mr. G , to my sur- 
prise, turned up in his college library a collection of languages 
which I made in Bengal. 

I called upon General Sherman to-day, but missed him. 
I had, however, a talk with two of his staff — very pleasant 
gentlemen of the military persuasion. They have just been 
with the General on a tour over the far-away South- Western 
Territories, in which they were accompanied by a gallant 
member of our House of Commons and his bride, who must 
have done an amount and severity of travelling astonishing for 
a lady. They described New Mexico and Arizona as wretch- 
ed Territories — Arizona, perhaps, a little the better of the 
two. The only inhabitants of New Mexico besides wild In- 
dians are the miserable descendants of the old Spanish colo- 
nists who were found there — and very miserable they seemed 
to be. No Americans go there ; and some of the English 
who have bought Spanish grants and tried to establish sheep r 
farms do not seem to have been very successful. In the 
far-away Western Territories the Indians cause an immense 
deal of trouble to the United States army, with the result, in 
fact, that that small army is really the most hard-worked in 
the world. 

Mexico itself, these officers say, is a good country, but the 
people are hopeless. Most of them are priestridden, and 
those who have ' jumped off ' the priests are brigands. They 
contrast Mexico with Canada, which they highly appreciate, 
giving a very favourable account of it, dwelling upon its 
loyalty to the British connection. They hear very good ac- 
counts of Manitoba. It has a splendid soil ; but there is no 
wood there, and the winter is too cold for cattle. They think 
that during the civil war, when it was expected that the 
States would go to pieces, the English were ready to ' gobble 
up ' their Northern Territories ; and the French Emperor 



LAW AKD LAWYERS. 273 

undertook his Mexican enterprise simply that he might be 
ready to take possession of the Southern States. "When the 
war was over, and they were ready for him with their har- 
dened troops, he had not a chance, and they ignominiously 
expelled him without fighting. They do not seem to have 
any sympathy with the Afghans, and have no objection to our 
beating them. Camels, they say, have been tried in the dry 
parts of America, but have been quite a failure. There is 
always rain and mud at some season of the year, and the cli- 
mate disagrees with camels. 

Later I met General Sherman himself, who was very kind 
and civil, and gave me some introductions to his officers in 
the parts of the country to which I am going. He does not 
affect the style militaire, but is more of a good, shrewd Yan- 
kee, like his brother, the Secretary of the Treasury. He 
says they have had enough of war. The only war he would 
like to undertake would be one against the Mexicans, to make 
them take back New Mexico and Arizona. He talked of the 
Chinese, in whom he seems to take great interest. He has a 
very high opinion of the Chinese Minister who has come to 
the States. 

I called on the Attorney-General. In his office — and, in 
fact, in most of the public offices of the United States Govern- 
ment — there are some female clerks. They are described as 
being daughters of deceased members of Congress, or persons 
having similar claims upon the country, and are said to work 
very well. There are also some coloured clerks. The business 
connected with* what is called the Court .of Claims (that is, 
claims against the United States) seemed to be an important 
department in the Attorney-General's office. There is no 
Legislative Office for the drafting of bills — no Sir Henry 
Thring. There is a Pardon Office, where all questions of par- 
don are considered. The Attorney-General says that the legis- 
lation of some of the States is rough enough, but most of the 
older Legislatures are well provided with good lawyers, and 
new States very much copy the legislation of old ones — choos- 
ing what they like best. I noticed a great mass of law-books, 
bound in the regular English law-calf, in the orthodox style. 

I visited the Supreme Court, sitting in the Capitol. All 

the Judges seemed to sit together, forming a very large Bench. 

Most of them are old men, and all elderly. They sit in a very 

large line room, with a very small audience. A Caiifornian 

18 



274 MY JOUKNAL. 

case was going on — a question of title under a Spanish grant. 
A young lawyer, in a white tie, but no wig or gown, was 
arguing the case. Pie seemed to be a local Californian who 
had come up about it. In the evening, dining at the British 
Minister's house, I was fortunate enough to meet several of 
the most distinguished public men. They all seemed to be 
very strong in favour of honest money. I talked to the Chief 
Justice about the usury laws which still prevail in America. 
He seemed to say that though they do still exist they have 
little practical effect ; they are seldom pleaded in bar of ac- 
tion. If usurious interest is once paid it cannot be recovered ; 
and outside the law there is a kind of merchants' union to 
enforce contracts. Even in New York there are still usury 
laws, limiting interest to 7 per cent. ; but the merchants 
manage to defeat it. The situation of the great city of New 
York is somewhat peculiar, for the rural population of the 
State a good deal exceeds the town population, and is de- 
cidedly rural and primitive ; so that in regard to usury laws, 
restriction on the sale of spirits, and some other matters 
the country farmers control all the wealth and power of 
New York City. It is they who maintain the usury laws. 
The spirit-licensing laws are now the subject of much conten- 
tion in New York. 

The following day was my last in Washington, and after 
again looking in at some of the offices I left it in the after- 
noon. There is a very important Agricultural Office, where 
they collect all sorts of agricultural specimens and acclimatise 
and distribute new plants ; but the head of the department 
was absent, and I have postponed going particularly over it 
till my return. 

Upon the whole my impression of Washington is that, in 
spite of the large amount of home rule which prevails in the 
United States, the central departments of the Government 
are upon a much more complete footing, with larger and more 
various establishments, than anything of the kind that we 
have. All these centralised departments are the creation of 
the last few years. 

There seems to be very great freedom for the expres- 
sion of political opinion, in spite of the victory of the North 
in the war. Looking over the books at a bookseller's shop, I 
came upon a popular school history of America in the form 
of a catechism, which gave the Southern view of matters in 



VIRGINIA. 2 / 5 

an extreme, I may say a violent, form. According to tins 
children's catechism, at the end of the war General Sherman 
agreed to receive back the Southern States into the Union 
unconditionally ; but this pledge on the faith on which the 
Confederate army surrendered was basely repudiated and 
broken. Soon after, the assassination of Mr. Lincoln excited 
the passions of the Northerners, and by perfidious violence 
the 14th and 15th Amendments of the Constitution were put 
in. It certainly seems very liberal to allow Southern children 
to be taught these things. 



VIRGINIA. 

Virginia is close to Washington, on the other side of the 
Potomac (pronounce it Potoomac, or you will be exceedingly 
laughed at) ; but I had arranged first to visit the lower por- 
tion of Virginia ; so I went back to Baltimore, and there 
took the steamer of what is called the Bay Line. In the 
steamer I was treated with great civility, at the instance of 

Mr. R . I passed the night in going down the Bay in as 

great comfort as if I had been in a luxurious house. The 
estuary of the Chesapeake is here called the ' Bay.' These 
American steamers are certainly delightful in quiet waters ; 
but the consort of this one was dreadfully mauled in the late 
storm, and very nearly went to the bottom. They are built 
too high for bad weather. 

In the morning I landed at Old Point, or Fort Munro^ 
near the country town of Hampton, in Virginia. There is a 
large hotel, used by sea-bathers in the summer. I had an in- 
troduction to General "W , the commander of the fort, 

where there is a large artillery school. General M , of 

General Sherman's Staff, most kindly took charge of me 
during my visit to this neighbourhood. 

I notice that I am now quite in the land of blacks, espe- 
cially, here, where they collected in numbers during the Avar. 
In this district they are quite in a majority. They do all the 
work about the wharves, and most other work. I principally 
came here to see the 'Hampton Agricultural Institute' for 
blacks. I went over it under the guidance of General Arm- 
strong, who has charge of it, and has made it what it is. It is 
not quite an Agricultural Institute, for it is more used to 



276 MY JOURNAL. 

turn out schoolmasters than anything else. The justification 
for teaching them agriculture is that, as the schools are com- 
monly open part of the year only, there is every opportunity 
for the practice of improved agriculture during the remainder 
of the } T ear. Several trades are also taught. I believe this is 
the only place in the Southern States where black printers 
are educated. The Institution is primarily supported by 
funds subscribed in the !Nbrth, but it is now largely aided by 
the State of Virginia. It is not a free school, not being 
looked upon as charitable. The students are expected to pay 
moderate fees, and by their work to earn something to- 
wards their own living. Besides the negro students there 
are a good many Indians, sent by the United States Govern- 
ment. They are Indians from the Western tribes ; and it is 
intended that, after being civilised and educated, they are to 
go back, and to improve their countrymen. I was much in- 
terested in these Indians. They are not red, but rather yel- 
low, and not at all unlike some of the Indo-Chinese tribes to 
the east of Bengal. 

I had a good deal of talk with General Armstrong about 
the negroes and about Southern politics. He is the son of a 
missionary who spent many years in the Sandwich Islands, 
but was a distinguished Federal soldier in the war. He thinks 
that the blacks are certainly inferior to the whites in intel- 
lect, but they are improvable. The Indians are decidedly 
stronger in intellect, but much more difficult to manage. The 
negroes have a passion for land; it is their great wish to 
acquire it; but they are wanting in saving qualities, pru- 
dence and perseverance, to enable them to do so. Those, 
however, who were the best hands in slave-times are now 
acquiring land — not very much, but they are getting on. If 
they are able to buy land they can get it. In some parts of 
the country there is a social prejudice against selling to them ; 
that is, in localities where white people prevail, they do not 
always like to have negroes coming among them ; but at 
other places, where the population is principally negro, the 
whites are very ready to sell and go elsewhere. He thinks 
about one-third of the negroes are decidedly good ; one-third 
may be made good by good management ; and one-third are 
bad. Like most of the people I have spoken to, he has not 
much opinion of the mulattos. The race is not sterile, but, it 
deteriorates. In most parts of the South the negroes rent land 



VIRGINIA. 2 7 7 

on shares ; but the master not only finds stock, but makes 
advances for food and other requirements, and at the end of 
the year the negroes have very little to get. They are very 
willing for education ; the great difficulty is about teachers, 
and that want this and other institutions are supplying. Most 
of the Southern States, now that the negroes must have votes, 
are really adopting the policy of educating and civilising 
them. Virginia has honestly carried out the education policy 
so far as her funds admit. Altogether, Republican that he 
is, he gives a favourable view of the situation. Maryland, 
Virginia, and North Carolina are decidedly doing well ; and 
in South Carolina, though some Democrats opposed Hampton, 
the present Governor, he is doing good. The worst ' bulldoz- 
ing' has been in Mississippi. In Virginia and other well- 
managed States, he says, people are quite willing to give the 
blacks a minority representation in the State Legislatures, and 
do so. This district is represented by a black. In short, he 
fully endorses the policy of the present President, which most 
Republicans do not. The negroes, he says, in most States, 
really are allowed to vote, and do ; but whites will not submit 
to be ruled over by blacks, and where that is feared they 
audaciously false-count. They are afraid to excite the feel- 
ings of the North by open violence. 

With the view of giving a fair trial to the negroes a good 
deal of land here has been sold in small patches, which they 
have bought ; and a good many private proprietors, following 
this example, have done likewise j so that there is quite a large 
black proprietary, owning their own patches of land and their 
own cottages. The patches, however, are very small, but are 
said to be large enough to grow vegetables ; and there is so 
much fishing and easy living here, that the negroes are not 
obliged to work very hard. An immense quantity of vege- 
tables is raised in this part of Virginia, to supply the win- 
ter and spring markets of the great towns of the North. 
The winter climate here is very mild; they say that cattle 
can almost always go out all the year. In the fields about I 
saw turnips and Scotch kail ; and I find that root-crops are 
a good deal more grown in the South than in the North. 
The turnips, however, are rather poor. Green sorghum is 
largely used as fodder for cattle, as well as the leaves of the 
maize. 

I visited the Soldiers' Home here, which seemed to me a 



278 MY JOURNAL. 

folly — a place where disabled volunteer soldiers are kept in 
absolute idleness, with nothing whatever to do. I saw an old 
soldier who had fought against us in the war of 1812, and by 
his side an Englishman who, in much later days, had fought 
for the United States. I notice that in all United States books 
and histories, and, I may say, memories, the war of 1812 occu- 
pies a prominent place, while we have managed to forget it. 

I looked in at the Circuit County Court, which was then 
sitting. The trial is by jury. The Court seemed a decent 
one, and the lawyers energetic. During the recess for dinner, 
parties, Judge, lawyers, and all, seemed freely to mix and talk. 
The Judge was a regular old Virginian, ruined by emancipa- 
tion. He says, * God made niggers different from white men, 
and nobody can make them the same.' 

I hear much of the Freedman's Savings Bank, which 
failed with a loss of $4,000,000, which has never been re- 
placed ; and the loss causes much distrust among negroes in- 
clined to save. 

General M took me back to Old Point in an outrigger 

boat — a kind of civilised adaptation of the outriggers one 
sees at Ceylon. I think they might with great advantage 
be generally adopted. They sail wonderfully, and cannot be 
upset. 

I crossed in the ferry-boat to Norfolk — a pretty sail. At 
Norfolk I went to the Atlantic Hotel. In the evening I had 
a good deal of talk with the people I met in the smoking- 
room. They declare that this is the best harbour on all the 
Atlantic coast, and a good many other people think so too. 
It is thoroughly sheltered, close to the sea, with no bar, and 
direct railway communication with the Mississippi ; so that 
much cotton is shipped here, not only from the Atlantic 
States but from Memphis and the Mississippi country. The 
cotton is carried from Memphis for tw r o dollars a bale, while 
it costs one dollar to New Orleans by steamer, is more roughly 
handled there, and costs more for the transport from New 
Orleans to England. Here, too, I noticed that the cotton- 
bales were very roughly handled ; and it is the same at Alex- 
andria, Bombay, and all cotton marts. It seem strange that 
so valuable a commodity should be so much torn and scat- 
tered about. It seems that the people who take samples must 
cut the bales and dig into them. There is dreadful wailing 
over the price of cotton : it is now nine cents a pound, or less. 



VIKGINIA, 279 

"Wheat is also very low; sugar is better than it was, but a 
Frenchman from the Sonth seems despondent about it. Last 
year the early frosts. made great havoc in the sugar-cane ; this 
year's crop remains to be seen, but prices are not very remu- 
nerative. They have lately commenced shipping from here 
very fine Yirginian and Kentucky cattle for the English mar- 
ket. A man who sent a cargo is said to have netted 51. & head 
upon them ; many more are to be sent. I saw two or three 
fine English cotton steamers, and pens for the accommodation 
of cattle were being put up on the decks. There is, however, 
a good deal of risk, especially in thus sending the cattle upon 
deck. The insurance for cattle is about 6 per cent. The re- 
tail price of beef here is about 6d. per pound. 

In the morning I took a walk about the town. I observe 
that here, as elsewhere, the suburban streets. are pretty and 
well-kept. Fig-trees grow well. There is an astonishing trade 
in oysters here. Oyster-packing is one of the great industries, 
and all the roads are metalled with oyster-shells. The most 
successful farmers are the oyster-farmers. 

In the list of churches I see here that the Episcopal 
churches stand first, then the Methodists ; there is onlr one 
Catholic church. I am told that though small in numbers 
the Episcopal Church in many respects takes a good position 
in the United States. They are said to have done more for 
the Indians than any other Church, and Episcopalian chap- 
lains seem more prominent than any other in the army. But 
Americans are very liberal on this subject. In the army the 
Government appoints chaplains — ministers of every sect are 
eligible — the best man is selected, without reference to the 
particular faith he professes ; and, strange to say, there seem 
to be no quarrels or jealousy upon the subject. I could only 
hear of one Catholic who had been appointed to the army ; but, 
among Protestant sects, a regiment or garrison has sometimes 
a chaplain of one persuasion, and sometimes of another. At 
Hampton Institute the services seem to be taken turn and turn 
about. I suspect that a great deal of approximation of sects 
is going on in the States. 

The army, I believe, is very well supplied with good medi- 
cal men ; but I am told that throughout the Union medical 
degrees are very easily got, and that there is a great want of 
security in regard to medical qualifications. 

It is generally said by those whom I meet that in most 



280 MY JOUKNAL. 

parts of Yirginia English settlers have not been very success- 
ful. They have sometimes bought inferior land — they are 
not very good at managing black labour, and do not under- 
stand tobacco farming and curing. The truth seems to be 
that the land of Yirginia was a good deal worked out ; much 
of it is rather poor, and much of it had been improvidently 
farmed in slave times. The proprietors were heavily in debt, 
and would have ' burst up,' war or no war. Now things are 
on the whole rather better ; fertilisers (that is, chemical ma- 
nures) are much used. Many of the poorer whites have got 
land, and so have a few of the blacks. Still most people in 
these parts are not particularly hard workers, and they are 
only moderately prosperous. The import of food-stuffs from 
the West has very much diminished the profits of farming 
here, and land is worth less than it was before the war. The 
only prosperous country is the fine pasture land in the west of 
the State, where cattle are largely bred. Much tobacco now 
comes from other States, but the tobacco manufacture in Yir- 
ginia is still very large. 

From Norfolk I took rail for Petersburg, through a very 
poor country. We passed through the ' Dismal Swamp,' a 
capital specimen of the belt of swampy country which sur- 
rounds the Southern States, consisting of large tracts of 
swamp, mixed with poor land covered with pines and scrub- 
oaks. There was occasional cultivation, but most of it seemed 
poor, and the houses were chiefly inhabited by blackf. A 
good deal of Indian corn is grown, and I saw many stacks of 
Yirginia peas — a great cultivation in these parts. In the 
train I met a very pleasant man, Mr. Y , formerly a Con- 
federate officer, now carrying on an insurance agency, in 

which he has for his partner Mr. J , a Scotchman, of a 

family whom I know. I met Mr. J at Petersburg, and 

he was kind enough to show me about the place. He has 
tried several parts of the world — went at one time to South 
America, then came to Yirginia and got a large farm. It 
answered tolerably well ; but he found the life dreadfully soli- 
tary, and now has gone into business in the town. He still, 
however, retains his estate, a considerable portion of which 
he cultivates on his own account. He keeps two or three 
Scotchmen as permanent servants, and they get gangs of 
negroes to work by the day when they are wanted. The 
negroes like working in that occasional kind of way. Part of 



VIRGINIA. 281 

his land he lets out in small farms to negroes on easy terms as 
regards rent, but he makes it a condition that he is to get 
labour from them when he wants it. They generally owe the 
rent, and let him take it out in labour. lie, however, does 
not think it a paying thing to buy land for the purpose of 
renting it out. Petersburg is a pretty town, and the country 
about is famous as the scene of great operations during the 
civil war. There are immense cemeteries in the neighbour- 
hood, full of soldiers of both sides. There is a famous place 
— a sort of hole or small crater — where a large number of 
black Federal soldiers were surrounded and, I am afraid I 
must almost say, massacred. Petersburg now seems to be 
thriving. There is only one old ruin, and that is the English 
church of the early days of the colony. It is said to have 
been built of bricks brought from England, and the walls still 
stand. There are large tobacco manufactories here, and some 
cotton-mills. I am told that the blacks work well for a time, 
but are apt to leave capriciously — in that respect they cannot 
be relied on. It is also more popular to employ whites who 
are in want of work. I notice that generally most of the 
United States employes are blacks, while the State and muni- 
cipal employes are mostly whites. For instance, the people 
who sweep the streets of Petersburg are all whites. They 
seem to get very low wages. Political contests apart, I gather 
that there is little bad feeling between the white and black 
castes ; they seem quite civil to one another. The dif- 
ferent occupations are a good deal divided between the two. 
Most of the agricultural labour is done by blacks ; so that 
things seem to be somewhat the converse of that which I 
found in States further Xorth, where the blacks are found in 
towns, and not in the countiy. I am told that the Virginian 
gentlemen of former days sometimes struggle on with their 
properties and make the best they can of them ; sometimes 
go to other States, where many of them have prospered in 
various enterprises ; and sometimes take to hotel -keeping and 
suchlike occupations in their own country. The hotel at 
Petersburg is kept by a General and ex-planter, who stands 
behind the bar, and seems to be a very pleasant, elderly land- 
lord. They say the relations between blacks and whites are 
better in Virginia than in some other States, because in slave 
times the blacks were better treated, this being a breeding 
State. The people who raised negroes were kind to and care- 



282 MY JOURNAL. 

f ul of them ; and the only unpleasant part of the relation was 
the selling off when the stock became fit for the market. 
However, this was done through slave-dealers, whose avoca- 
tion was held to be degrading, and with whom the gentlemen 
who sold the slaves would not hold social intercourse. 

Mr. Y does not confirm the statement that a certain 

number of seats in the State Assemblies are allowed to the 
blacks by way of conciliation and minority representation. 
He says that whatever seats they have they only get by hard 
voting, and he admits that when the Democrats are hard put 
to it they sometimes manipulate a good deal in the counting 
of votes. The negroes are in a very decided majority in the 
Petersburg Congressional District ; and, besides returning 
some members to the State Assembly, they have hitherto suc- 
ceeded in returning a Eepublican member to Congress, a Nor- 
wegian, who seems generally admitted to be a very able man, 
and who has much influence with the negroes. The blacks 
have great faith in General Grant, as the man who gave them 
their freedom, and they go to the poll as his supporters. 
There are several companies of black militia volunteers in 
this State, with their own black officers ; there is one such 
company at Petersburg, said to be much better drilled than 
the white companies. 

Travelling to Richmond I met an old 'gentleman, a Demo- 
crat, coming back from canvassing, and had a good deal of 
talk with him. He was very hot on politics, and denounces 
the Norwegian as ' white without, but very black within.' He 
was full of currency questions, and a hot free-trader of a kind. 
His argument seems to be that if the tariff w^as more adjusted 
for revenue, then, with the aid of the larger customs revenue 
so obtained, they might get rid of the internal revenue, which 
he describes as most oppressive and expensive. He says that 
the present tariff kills trade ; that for every dollar paid to the 
State as customs duty on woollen goods the people pay $600 
to their own manufacturers ; and for every dollar paid as duty 
upon cotton they pay $2,000 — all this for the benefit of two 
or three Northern States, especially Pennsylvania : and even 
there, he says, the manufacturers are but a small minority 
now, and nearly played out. He dwells upon the much larger 
number of the agricultural population, and says they should 
be favoured, and not the manufacturers. He talks good Eng- 
lish, and would pass as a very good committee-man with us. 



VIRGINIA. 283 

I understand that Virginia is in difficulties about the State 
debt, and there are various plans for adjusting it by cutting it 
down. Some say that the people of the State could pay if 
they liked ; but the farmers do not like heavy taxation, es- 
pecially in the present depreciated condition of their proper- 
ties. In rural parts of the country the State and local taxes 
come to about 1£ per cent, on the capital value, and then 
there is a poll-tax of %\\ and some other taxes. On each 
glass of whisky being sold a bell is struck, marking a regis- 
ter, and a tax is paid to the State, besides that to the United 
States. Some recent amendments have been made in the 
Constitution, introducing provisions designed to hit the blacks. 
These provisions disfranchise all who have not paid up the 
poll-tax, and collectors are said to be sometimes very lax till 
the election is over ; moreover, they disfranchise for life every 
man convicted of larceny or other such offence, unless he is 
pardoned by the Governor. The blacks are tried for these 
offences by local justices of the peace, who are generally white 
Democrats. I think this rule is dangerous. Flogging is very 
freely used in Virginia as a punishment for larceny, the sys- 
tem being different from that of the States further South, 
where they prefer to imprison criminals and to hire them out 
at a profit. 

At Richmond I w^ent to see the Exchange Hotel, which 
seemed very good. 

Next day I went to see Dr. D — — , State Superintendent 
of Education. I had a good deal of talk with him, and went 
with him to see some schools, both black and white. Virginia 
is divided into ninety-nine counties. After the war an at- 
tempt was made to introduce townships, according to North- 
ern ideas ; but that has been given up, and now counties are 
divided into magisterial districts, which have not the same 
organisation as townships. The great difficulty in regard to 
education is caused by the embarrassed financial position of 
the State. Unfortunately, the Treasury is so low that it is 
very difficult to get from it the educational funds deposited 
there ; and then by law taxes are payable in debt coupons, 
and they get more of these coupons than cash. In this State 
one-fifth of the State assessment is set apart for education, as 
well as a poll-tax of a dollar a head, which it is optional with 
counties to increase to %\\. Elections are very frequent here. 
In Virginia the different elections do not take place at the 



284 MY JOUKNAL. 

same time. One year there is an election for Congress, and 
another year for the State Legislature ; while the elections 
for county and local officers take place at a different period of 
the year. 

Some think that farmers now almost overdo expenditure 
upon fertilisers. These chemical fertilisers are sometimes 
rather dangerous, and perhaps good farmyard manure is the 
best after all. A curious feature of the law is that, in Virginia 
and some other States, the manure-merchant has a privilege or 
hypothec over the crops. 

Dr. R thinks the negroes are generally inferior in in- 
tellect to the whites, and not capable of sustained or skilful 
work ; but still they are very good within certain limits — they 
are very well-disposed, and much can be made of them. 

Of public free schools there are three classes — Primary, 
Grammar, and Higher — but these seem to run very much into 
one another when they are in the same building, as was the 
case at Richmond. Almost all the masters seem to be mis- 
tresses. They follow the old Scotch system of schooling in 
the winter and farming in the summer. By the law of this 
State schools must be open not less than five months, but in 
Richmond they keep them open for nine. There is no com- 
pulsory law, but children come freely to the schools. The 
children of the upper classes are very well represented in all 
the schools, but there are also large private schools in Rich- 
mond. I saw one very large one. The private schools are 
principally of the lower grades, where the scholars of the 
public schools are of a very mixed class ; in the higher schools 
there are not so many of the poor, and the upper classes go 
more freely. Boys and girls are always taught together in the 
same class, but they do not sit together, and they are kept 
quite separate in playtime. The girls in the higher schools 
seem of a superior class, and there the girls very considerably 
preponderate over the boys. Many of the boys of that age go 
into offices. As a rule in the higher schools the pupils take 
one foreign language — the girls generally French, the boys 
Latin or German. I did not learn that much science was 
taught. In the black schools I noticed some very fair mulat- 
tos — one girl in particular, who wonld have been very fair for 
a European, was placed among the blacks, many of whom are 
very black and hideous. I hardly knew before what an ugly 
race some of the blacks are. 



VIEGIKEA. 285 

I went to see a great tobacco factory. It is entirely con- 
fined to the manufacture of chewing-tobacco. By far the 
greatest part of the labour is done by blacks. Tobacco seems 
to be specially their vocation. Most of the foremen are whites, 
and some of the work is done by white and black men mixed. 
I did not see any mixture of white and black women ; that 
does not seem to be allowed. Cigars, it seems, are not made 
by blacks ; it is one of the skilled things they do not do. The 
black labourers in the factory get about a dollar a day for 
moderately skilled work, and sometimes more ; they do not 
work very regularly — they average about four days a week. 
All seem to agree that negroes are fond of amusement ; they 
like to make the most of life. They go on excursions, fishing 
expeditions, and so on, and thus vary their hard work. In the 
tobacco factory the women were set to sing for my benefit, and 
they certainly do that very well. The tobacco-leaves are dried 
and packed in hogsheads by the farmers, and in that shape 
they come to the manufactories. The value very much de- 
pends on the way in which the drying process is done by the 
farmers. 

I was invited to go out into the . country with General 

~W , and went with him to his place, about twenty miles 

distant. There was much tree- jungle on the way, and it did 
not seem to be a very fertile country. The houses were of 
wood, and did not look very good. He is a great farmer, and 
has some 1,600 acres under cultivation, but his is a very ex- 
ceptional case. He is a somewhat rare instance of a Virginian 
proprietor successfully accepting the change of circumstances, 
and he has done so in a very good spirit. I rather gather, 
however, that his farming does not pay particularly well. 

General W employs entirely negro labour, with white 

foremen, one of whom I saw on horseback watching the 
ploughs. The fact seems to be that people accustomed to 
black labour do not get on very well with whites, and vice 
versa ; and so it is that where they were accustomed to slave 
labour they now employ blacks, and do not think of introduc- 
ing whites. The Southern railways and other great works 
have been almost entirely constructed by black labour. Gen- 
eral W is very fond of his black people ; most of them 

were born and bred on the property. He had many more be- 
fore the war — perhaps 400 — worth, he says, about $150,000, 
and now there are in all about 150. Eighteen are perma- 



286 MY JOURNAL. 

nently employed upon this block of 1,000 acres. Then there 
are the women and children, and some men who have a little 
land, and work occasionally for him. He seems to say that 
hereabouts the difficulty rather is for all to get work than for 
employers to get labour enough. He is clear that, so far as 
income is concerned, if he had got the value of his slaves by 
way of compensation he would be better off than under the 
slave system. The only drawback is that formerly you had 
the comfort of servants whom you could bring up to your ways 
and be sure of keeping, but now they do as they like. Others, 
however, say that, in this view, account is not taken of the in- 
crease of the negroes, which was the great source of profit in 
former days, and much recouped the owner for the capital 
sunk in slave property. 

General \v 's land seemed to be fine and easily work- 
able, but it needs manure. The principal staples are Indian 
corn, wheat, and artificial grass. I gather that much of the 
best land in river-bottoms and such situations is still held by 
the old proprietors and farmed by negro labour ; but these 
farms are generally not very profitable, and throughout the 
State there is much pecuniary difficulty. In the cattle-grazing 
tracts there are some really large estates. I heard of one very 
large indeed. I asked what the proprietor made of his land. 
The answer was, i He lets out parts of it, and turns cattle on 
the rest.' In the Southern States mules are almost always 
used for ploughing ; in some parts of the country oxen are a 
good deal used for draught. On all gides I hear that General 

~W is a very excellent specimen of the fine old Yirginian 

proprietor ; but then he is a man of means, and can do what 
most others cannot. He is a most polished and courteous 
gentleman. His place, however, shows no signs of ever hav- 
ing been a fine place in our sense. It is more like a comfort- 
able planter's or gentleman-farmer's house, and there is no 
affectation of grandeur. The family seem very English in their 

ideas and sympathies. General "W" stands up for the 

character and capacity of the negroes, but he admits that they 
are not up to managing delicate machines. He says they are 
very trustworthy, and his doors never were locked during the 
war ; but they sometimes lay their hands on petty articles of 
food and such things. Although General W was a Con- 
federate general he seems to be in truth now nearly a Repub- 
lican. His family appear scarcely to share his very hopef id 



VIEGINIA. 287 

view of the situation. Mrs. W is well known to have 

been the kindest of mistresses. She admits the horrors of 
slavery, but now thinks things are even worse, and that the 
blacks will presently be starved. Miss W thinks Wash- 
ington made a great mistake in separating from England. 
Very many Virginians seem still to affect English sympathies. 
General W says that before the war farming was a pro- 
fession as good as law or medicine. I gather that the proprie- 
tor-farmers ranked with professional men, not above them. 
The next day we came back to Richmond. I had some most 
agreeable talk with the ladies of the party, and shall always 
have a very pleasant remembrance of this visit. They say 
that yonng ladies here are much more independent than the 
Xew York young ladies now are, the latter having begun to 
affect the European fashion. 

I called on Major P , an ex-Confederate officer, and 

now a lawyer. He was very civil, and gave me much assist- 
ance. He took me to call on the Governor of the State, 
Colonel Holliday, a bright and highly educated man, who is, I 
believe, a very successful Governor. He lost an arm in the 
war on the Confederate side. Like most people here, he de- 
fends the institution of slavery, though he cannot defend the 
slave-trade between the breeding States and the consuming 
States. Accepting slavery as past and gone, he is all for re- 
taining and making the most of the negroes, on whom he 
relies as the conservative element in the country, as contrasted 
with the communistic and troublesome among the white work- 
men. He says the blacks are so far quite free from trades- 
unionism and Communism, and they are very useful and good 
labourers. They are, however, neither mentally equal to the 
whites, nor will they do so much hard work in a sustained 
way — not so much as the Irishmen ; they will take holidays 
and amuse themselves occasionally. The mulattos he thinks 
are superior to the ordinary negroes ; they are free from the 
odour which is a great drawback to the negroes in domestic 
service. 

Colonel Holliday explained that much of the State debt had 
been incurred for internal improvements, which do not pay — 
railways, canals, and the like. The making of such works by 
the State tends to excessive ' log-rolling ' in the State Legisla- 
ture, and that is the origin of the clause recently inserted in 
the Constitution of this and other States which prohibits the 



288 MY JOURNAL. 

making of any internal improvements by the State. In Vir- 
ginia they had no land to give to the railways, and they gave 
large money grants by way of subsidy. He did not seem 
much inclined to free trade, but rather hoped that Virginia 
might increase her manufactures. He thinks the state of the 
labour market is pretty satisfactory here — people can get work, 
and employers can get labour. All they want is to be let 
alone. He is very friendly to England, but dwells much on 
the ' Cassandra ' warnings of which we have lately heard, and 
especially on the great danger to England of engaging in any 
European war. In that case, he says, our commerce would be 
swept from the ocean, as was that of the United States, and we 
shall find the disadvantage of living in an island. 

I went to see Messrs. B , bankers and merchants. 

They tell me a curious fact : that before the war of a total of 
Virginian exports of some §34,000,000 close on half — viz., be- 
tween sixteen and seventeen millions — was the value of slaves 
exported. In some parts of the South slaves were a good deal 
worked out, but generally the demand for slaves in the South 
was caused by increase of cultivation. Sugar has now de- 
clined, but cotton has extended, and will extend. The present 
price of nine cents is not so very bad after all ; it is quite up 
to the average of the prices before the war. In those days it 
has been known as low as four or five cents. They do not 
think money is being lost in the cultivation of cotton, though 
it is not very profitable. A good deal of money is advanced 
to planters by people called factors, who seem to fulfil the 
functions of the Indian Mahajan. Even if cotton be not lu- 
crative the people in the Southern States must grow it ; they 
have no alternative. They have no other great staple there. 
There has been considerable increase in the cultivation of cot- 
ton by small white farmers in the hilly districts, and a very 
great increase in Texas, a State which seems to be going ahead 
very fast. 

I went to see some of the great flour-mills here. Most of 
the labour is black, but the really skilled work must be done 
by whites. I saw a good deal of work in which black and 
white men are employed indiscriminately, and are paid the 
same. There are said to be no signs of jealousy between the 
two races. The James River is very rocky and rapid in it- 
course up to this point. Above Richmond it has been canal- 
ised, and it is here applied to provide the great water-power 



VIRGINIA. 289 

by which the mills are worked. On the opposite side is a 
place called Manchester, where there are several cotton-mills. 
The river is very red and muddy ; this is no doubt due to the 
red soil which they have about here. This red soil extends a 
long way through the Southern States. 

Here too there was a great agricultural fair going on. I 
went out to see it, but was somewhat disappointed. The 
grounds seemed too large for the show. There were two most 
enormous cattle, but the others did not strike me very much. 
The most frequent animals were small Jersey cows, pretty 
little beasts. Trotting horses were conspicuous. There seemed 
no great show of fruits and vegetables. I may remark, now 
that I have seen a good many of these shows, that as an agri- 
cultural show that which I saw at Hamilton, in Canada, Avas 
the best of them all. I suspect that Virginia is not at all up 
to the Northern States in agricultural enterprise. Coming 
back from the fair I watched the ploughing going on in some 
large fields. The soil seemed light. It was being largely 
limed, and green crops were being ploughed in. This is very 
much the practice in these parts. I waited for two ploughs to 
come round, to see who the labourers were, and found that one 
was held by a black man, and one by a white man. 

Returning to the town, I went to inquire about books giv- 
ing information about the State laws, and got an authoritative 
compilation, the 'Revised Code of Virginia,' in one thick vol- 
ume, circulated by authority of the Legislature. In the even- 
ing Colonel , son of the distinguished hydrographer, was 

good enough to call upon me and introduce me to the West- 
moreland Club, an excellent institution. Afterwards I went 
to the theatre. The principal object of the play seemed to be 
to satirise an American member of Congress, a 'lady who 
had been abroad,' and an English tourist. They were very 
severe on the Congress-man, and attributed to him all sorts of 
corruption, which caused great laughter and applause. A 
' civil rights man ' was introduced. It seems that a civil rights 
man is one who is in favour of complete equality of blacks and 
whites. He tells that in Xew York he patronises a ' civil 
rights' barber's shop, where they shave both blacks and 
whites, an idea which seemed to amuse the audience. The 
English tourist was a stupid and uninteresting person. The 
' lady who had been abroad ' was a caricature of the people 
we see in Continental Hotels, and she was held up to much ridi- 



290 MY JOURNAL. 

cule. She was also the vehicle for exhibiting genuine "Worth's 
dresses, which the Virginian ladies seem to think a very in- 
teresting sight. 

Isext morning I breakfasted with Governor Holliday, and 
met a party at his house. He has an official residence ; and I 
noticed that convicts in chains were cleaning up the grounds 
in a way that very much reminded me of the practice in India 
in former days. The chain-gang is a recognised institution, 
and you may see them working in the streets any day. The 

people whom I met this morning say that General "W and 

his farm are far too favourable a specimen, and that most of 
the people in Virginia are not at all well off. Even in the 
best parts of the State much good land is for sale for less than 
the buildings alone originally cost. They think, however, that 
their geographical situation in the centre of the Union ought 
to enable them to retrieve their position, and they would do so 
if they were not ruined by the excessive cheapness of produce 
imported from the West. They all defend the institution of 
slavery without reserve, and declare that it often happened 
that the masters had to work very hard indeed, while the black 
labourers had a life the happiest, easiest, and most free from 
care that it is possible to imagine. There is now an income-tax 
in Virginia on all incomes, not derived from property, exceed- 
ing six hundred dollars per annum, the first six hundred dol- 
lars being in all cases exempt. All property is liable to the 
property- tax, and this income-tax is merely to catch people 
who do not pay property-tax, and who in most of the States 
are exempt from direct taxation. Some people of the town 
say that personal property is very fully taxed ; indeed, even 
more so than the land, the land being now valued at a very 
low rate. It seems that there is a good deal of evasion of the 
income-tax. The assessors are elected, and dare not assess 
rigorously. I talked to a member of the Virginian Legisla- 
ture, which contains a good many men of some substance. He 
has both won and lost his seat on the question of the dog-tax, 
which is said to be necessary for the protection of the stock- 
breeders, but is very unpopular. It is imposed in some coun- 
ties, and not in others. Many people seem to hope that local 
and side questions of this kind will take people off from party 
divisions and black and white factions. I observe that there 
are two or three independent candidates for Congress in this 
State. I am told stories of negroes who say they will vote 



YIRGIXIA. 291 

for a man because he is a ' gentleman.' I learn one thing 
which shocks me — that blacks are here systematically excluded 
from the juries. This seems to be avowed, the excuse being, 
' They have got votes, and we cannot give them everything.' 
In the United States Courts blacks are put on the juries, but 
not in the Virginian Courts. They say that there are many 
free traders here, but free trade is not an active question at 
present. The Southern States are much more occupied with 
reconstruction questions. They managed to carry the last 
changes of the Virginian Constitution, which gave the whites 
some advantages, under cover of disputes with the Federal 
Government on greater questions. 

I visited the Richmond Institute, a philanthropic estab- 
lishment for the education of black teachers and preachers. 

It seemed to be doing very well. Mr. C , the principal, 

has a high opinion of the negroes, but he admits that they 
are not mathematical. He is a Northerner sent by Northern 
people to carry on this work. He admits that the men of 
Richmond behave very well to him, but says that the ladies 
are much more bigoted. 

I visited Mr. V 's establishment for extracting the 

juice of meat in a pure form, without heating or cooking. I 
believe that this essence has an extraordinary virtue for 
invalids. 

I lunched with Mr. B , and met a large party there. 

They were generally pleasant people. The Virginian ladies 
are very agreeable, but they denounce in very strong language 
General Grant and the Abolitionists and all their works. Mr. 

B is President of the National Bank here. He complains 

that the banks are over-taxed. They could lend money at 5 
or 6 per cent., if they were not taxed, better than they now 
can at 10 per cent. These National Banks are a great ques- 
tion in the United States. At present a large party denounce 
them, saying that they have far too favourable terms. They 
are allowed to issue bank-notes on deposit of United States 
securities ; so that their solvency, so far as regards these notes, 
is always secured. 

After dining with Major P I went with him to a 

great gathering and banquet of the ' Confederate Soldiers of 
Northern Virginia,' where we heard a great oration, giving 
a military history of a part of the war from the Confederate 
point of view. 



292 MY JOURNAL. 

This day concludes my stay in Virginia, and ends a pleas- 
ant visit to Richmond. It strikes me that now I have got 
into a negro country the servants are more numerous than 
in the North. Their style and manners are something like 
those of native servants in India. I believe in former days 
the Southerners were more English in their habits than some 
of the Northerners. Ladies used to ride on horseback ; now 
they cannot afford many horses, and private property pre- 
vailed here so early that there are not the open sectional 
roads that I saw in Illinois. Ladies who attempt to ride or 
drive complain of the endless number of gates and want of 
open country. 



NORTH CAROLINA. 

From Richmond I travelled to Raleigh, the political 
capital of North Carolina. It is about 8-J hours' run by 
rail. The country is more or less undulating. A great 
deal of it seemed rather poor, with a great deal of wood — 
principally pine, and some indifferent oaks and other trees. 
I am told that the original pine of the Southern country is 
a very good wood ; but when these trees have been once cut 
the second growth, which comes up spontaneously, is gener- 
ally a tree of an inferior species. Most of the soil seemed to 
be reddish and rather light, but a good deal of it is culti- 
vated ; and as we got South cotton became common. The 
cotton crop is now ripe upon the ground, and picking is 
going on. My general impression of the cotton I saw 
was that it gives one the idea of a great extent of culti- 
vation, rather than of very high cultivation. I am told 
that the cotton-plant grows very w T ell in this reddish, 
lightish soil ; in fact, it prefers a light soil, if it have 
only a little manure. This country is rather far North 
for its cultivation. The largest amount of cotton is by no 
means produced from the largest plants. Some very small, 
short plants are very heavy with cotton. There is a great 
variety in the yield ; some fields seeming very heavy, others 
very poor. 

I noticed many very miserable huts scattered about in 
an isolated way among the fields and the woods. They seem 
to be mostly of one pattern, and were inhabited both by 



NORTH CAROLINA. 293 

white people and by blacks. I remarked to my fellow- 
passengers on the wretchedness of these houses, and they ad- 
mitted that the cottages are certainly very poor ; but they say 
in the South people are less in need »of good houses, as the 
climate is more favourable. I understand that these isolated 
houses have been built since the war. Before the war the 
people — at any rate, the blacks — used to live together in plan- 
tation settlements. Since the war both whites and blacks 
have got land who had it not before. The two first acquaint- 
ances I made both came into these Southern parts with the 
Federal army, and stayed at the end of the war. One of 
them is an Englishman ; they both seem to be on good terms 
with the people with whom they are engaged in cotton-buying 
and such business. 

In the cotton-fields I several times noticed white people 
at work, but the majority of the cotton cultivators seemed to 
be black. White and black children seemed friendly enough 
together, but intermarriage is prohibited. It seems, how- 
ever, that there has been a good deal of intermixture of 
races, and many of the coloured people are not pure blacks. 
I have heard it said with much truth, that since it is so 
there is much ground for legalising intermarriage. The 
cotton is all ginned by machinery, and what is called half- 
pressed. All over the country there are ginning mills and 
pressing machines, where the cotton is made up and sent to 
the great ports, where it is re-pressed for export. Much of 
the cotton seed is used for manure ; in fact, the seed makes 
the best manure for this crop. I am told the settlers who 
have come to North. Carolina of late years have, in most 
instances, not succeeded very well ; they were very often 
cheated by land companies, and did not understand the busi- 
ness; but there are some Northern farmers who have done 
very well. 

There was a second class on the train chiefly occupied by 
negroes, but not exclusively so. I noticed an advertisement 
of a travelling agent, who wants '150 farmers to go to Texas,' 
and offers to engage them 'either on wages or on shares.' 
Both my travelling acquaintances, though in some sense car- 
pet-baggers themselves, speak strongly of the evils of the 
carpet-bag government of the Southern States. 

Raleigh, seems to be a pretty country place, with plenty 
of flowers and good vegetation. I went to the Yarborough 



294 MY JOURNAL. 

House Hotel, which. I found comfortable. Reading the local 
papers in the evening, I saw that most of the seats in Con- 
gress for this State are contested. I did not see evidence of 
any great bitterness. Jji the papers I noticed an account of 
a local county meeting for Wayne County — not a popular 
meeting, but only of the County Commissioners, who are five 
in number. The subjects seemed very like those dealt with 
by our Local Boards. I remarked the following : — The poor- 
house and paupers ; the county gaol ; roads and bridges, and 
apportionment of labour — in these States the inhabitants are 
bound to work on the roads on the system which used to be 
called 4 Statute labour ' in Scotland — ; spirit licenses ; valua- 
tion of property ; registration of voters ; arrangement of school 
districts ; appointment of a local constable on a casual vacancy. 
It is mentioned that there are nine paupers in the poor-house 
— four white and five coloured — and then there is a notice of 
small allowances granted to out-paupers. 

Later in the evening I went to a Democratic meeting, 
but it was very cold, and the meeting was thinly attended. 
The people were very silent and undemonstrative while the 
orator exposed financial questions. He went in for an ex- 
tended currency, without precisely saying that he meant 
greenbacks. He was against protection. He said that the 
property of Massachusetts is ten times greater than that of 
Xorth Carolina, but the L^nited States' taxation is not in the 
same proportion. ' Money,' he said, ' was unjustly appreci- 
ated, and everything else depreciated.' 

Isext day I called on the Governor of the State, Mr.Tance, 
who received me very civilly, and with him I found an old 

Mr. C , of Scotch descent, and formerly a rich proprietor, 

who had at least a thousand slaves, but who now talks as if 
he was terribly reduced. He said that what has protected 
people in this State is the homestead law. I afterwards, 
however, heard that he is imderstood to be quite rich, and 
that he does not like the homestead law, because it protects 
debtors too much. That homestead law is certainly very 

much in force here ; and Mr. C described it as saving to 

a man just as much land as his neighbours choose to lay out 
for him under the valuation clauses, so that, he says, creditors 
have suffered more than debtors. I also made the acquaint- 
ance of Mr. D , one of the principal residents, also of his 

son, and some other gentlemen. Messrs. D claim to hold 



NORTH CAROLINA . 295 

tlieir land under a royal grant, and are Episcopalians, but I 
understand that there are comparatively few Episcopalians in 
North Carolina, which was not so aristocratic in its origin as 
Virginia on the one side, and South Carolina on the other. 
Different parts of the State are still held by the descendants 
of the original settlers ; very few foreigners have come in* of 
late years. The part near the sea was principally occupied by 
Englishmen, with blacks under them. Then a great part of 
the low-lying country inland towards the borders of South 
Carolina is occupied by a large Scotch-Highland settlement, 
who, I am told, still speak Gaelic. They are a hard-working 
population, who never had many slaves, but worked them- 
selves, getting out timber and growing corn and cotton. Ma- 
terially speaking, they have not prospered exceedingly ; but 
they have educated themselves, and do well on the whole. 
They are said to have come after the rebellion of '45, and 
among them Flora Macdonald. They are Presbyterians. In 
another part of the State there is a strong colony of Scotch- 
Irish. Further West there are many Germans, and much of 
the mountainous country in the extreme West is occupied by 
Moravians and other such settlers, who used to live a very 
rough and isolated life. These people it was who, aided by 
a great many deserters and others, rebelled against the Con- 
federate Government during the war, as did many of the 
people in Andrew Johnson's country in East Tennessee. In 
those days they used to be called ' Bush Whackers.' They 
were influenced partly by the old Whig spirit, partly by a 
dislike of the war, and partly by a dislike of the .compulsory 
service which it was sought to impose upon theni. The black 
population is most numerous in the low-lying lands in the 
eastern part of the State. In the rest, whites are more nu- 
merous. 

Before the war the most valuable property consisted of 
slaves. The direct profit from their work did not suffice to 
pay the interest on the capital sunk upon them, and the real 
profit was in the increase of the slaves and selling them 

away. Old Mr. C says, with evident pride in his good 

management, that by feeding his slaves well and marrying 
them judiciously, he used to double their number in twenty 
years. After the war the people had neither money nor 
stock, and were very badly off indeed. Some of the low 
lands, protected by dykes which needed care and labour, 



296 MY JOUKNAL. 

have now been flooded and disused, and in that part of the 
country the negroes live by fishing, etc., and only grow a 
very moderate amount of cotton and corn. It has been 
found, however, of late years that the higher red land, which 
was not before supposed to be good for cotton, does grow 
it exceedingly well, and very much land has been brought 
under cotton which was not so cultivated before, partly by 
breaking up new land and partly by substituting cotton for 
corn, grass, and pigs. Bacon is now brought from the West 
very cheap. This change has especially taken place in the 
district about Raleigh, in which very little cotton was grown 
before, whereas Raleigh is now a very large cotton mart. 
I am told that few large farmers succeed, though some do 
more or less, chiefly those who have a knack of managing 
the negroes. Generally speaking, the most successful are 
the smaller farmers, who work themselves with their families. 
At first these people were obliged to get advances from 
factors and commission agents. Isow they are getting more 
independent, and would do very well if they could only get 
a tolerable price for their cotton. Cotton is in these parts 
the only crop that brings money, except tobacco, which is 
cultivated to a considerable extent in one part of this State. 
A good deal of the land has changed hands since the war, and 
every man who has prudence can get land. Still although 
some small people, both white and black, get land of their 
own, much more is rented on various terms. Many proprie- 
tors cultivate some land themselves, and rent out the rest. 

Some proprietors (old Mr. C , for instance) rent out the 

land in large blocks to white farmers, who pay them one-third 
of the corn and one-fourth of the cotton, and these white 
farmers again (who seem to be a sort of middle men) make 
arrangements with the blacks ; perhaps they find the mules, 
etc., and get two- thirds of the crop. Many blacks again take 

farms direct from the proprietors ; and these, Mr. C says, 

are the best farmers. Very often rent is paid in the shape of 
a fixed quantity of cotton ; there is very seldom a money rent. 
I have seen a good many cotton-fields near the town, and 
talked over the system of cultivation. One mule is sufficient, 
the plough being a light one. The crop requires much plough- 
ing, and hoeing and labour, but little machinery. The seed 
is drilled in, then ploughed between the drills, -and the plants 
are thinned out by hoeing like our turnips ; in fact, the culti- 



NORTH CAROLINA. 297 

vation a good deal reminded me of turnip cultivation. Manure 
seems to be very generally used. A bale : an acre is a very 
good crop, but half or three-quarters of a bale is more com- 
mon. In the lower land further east they get more cotton 
to the acre, but it is inferior in quality to the upland cotton, 
and the farmers on the lowlands do not seem to be so inde- 
pendent. It is most frequently necessary for the proprietor 
to supply everything, and that system generally breaks down 
in the end. Here a small farmer can cultivate about twenty- 
five acres of cotton if he- has a family to help him. By far 
the greater portion of the land round Haleigh seems to be 
rmder cotton ; one sees large stretches of it. Besides the few 
blacks who possess farms of their own, very many own houses 
and small patches of land not large enough to make them 
independent farmers, and these men work as. hired labourers 
besides cultivating their patches. I hear no complaint that 
the blacks about here are idle. There is no decrease in their 
numbers, but owing to their careless habits they are not now 
increasing so fast as they used to, nor so fast as the whites. 
The disadvantage in regard to labour in these parts is that the 
female labour, which was largely available in slave times, is 
now lost, as the black women will not work; they like to 
copy the whites in this respect, and the preachers have taken 
the side of the women. They cook and wash and do house- 
hold work, but, excepting the cotton-picking at the picking- 
season, will seldom do field work. Those of the lower class 
of whites who have no energy to rise above the position of 
hired labourers are no better off than the blacks, and are not 
paid higher, but by far the greater part of the hired labour 
is black. In the town, labourers get nearly a dollar a day : in 
the country they are hired at eight or ten dollars a' month 
with a house and rations, or fifty cents a day without rations. 
I hear complaints that many of the white people go AVest 
instead of improving the lands at home ; many of the High- 
landers have gone west. Here also I am told that the only 
complaint against the negroes is that, though generally willing 
to work, they are too much inclined to take holidays and 
amuse themselves. That is said to be an objection to employ- 
ing them in mills and places where regular labour is required. 
They are apt to go to church meetings or to market the pro- 

1 About 450 lbs. 



298 MY MOURNAL. 

duce of their little patches. They drink more than is good 
for them, but I do not gather that they are very drunken. 

Good land can be bought in these parts at from five to 
twelve dollars an acre, but there is much poor land to be had 
for one or two dollars. In the hilly part of this State there 
is no limestone, and they say that lime is necessary to make 
bone and produce a good race of men or animals. At any 
rate, they do not fatten cattle very much, but they raise store 
cattle in the hilly parts and send them to Virginia. Indian 
corn grows well. I am told that it is not considered to be 
suited to a tropical climate. Even in the most southerly States 
of the Union it is not so good as in the central States. The 
rainfall here seems to be very good ; it averages upwards of 
forty inches per annum, and is pretty regular. Perhaps three- 
fourths of the State is still covered with wood, and most of 
this might be cultivated if it were cleared, and manure were 
more or less used. A good deal of wheat is grown, but not 
much barley or oats. 

Governor Yance, though now a Democrat, comes from the 

Western hill country, and both he and Mr. C and others 

whom I met seemed to be very well inclined towards the ne- 
groes, saying that they often make the best farmers, and gen- 
erally the best labourers. The Governor says, that on the 
whole the black representatives sent to the Legislature are 
fairly selected ; illiterate they are, but some of them are quite 
well-disposed and sensible. He instances as one of the best a 
black carpenter who sits in the Legislature, and wmen not so 
engaged works well at his trade. ■ Most of the skilled trades 
are in the hands of the whites, but there are black carpenters, 
blacksmiths, and bricklayers, and the whites have not attempted 
to put them down. In the last State Assembly there were four- 
teen blacks, and there are still eight of them in the State Legis- 
lature. None of the State judges are black, but some of the 
county officers are. There is a black prosecuting attorney at 
Raleigh, but he is not very good. In this State blacks are 
allowed to sit on juries, and do to some extent, but not very 
many of them. There is still a very strong social prejudice 
against people with any' tinge of colour, especially among 
ladies, who would not for their lives sit in the same room with 
a coloured man. I am told that the last Governor was obliged 
to give up his receptions because of the difficulty about the 
black members of the Legislature, for if they came no whites 



NORTH CAROLINA. 299 

would come. Tlie whites have agreed to accept the blacks for 
business purposes, but not for social purposes. This State was 
originally entirely against secession and war. It was formerly 
a very Whig State, and although afterwards the Democrats 
prevailed, when the quarrel between the North and South 
came North Carolina voted entirely against secession, till 
Lincoln's military measures for the coercion of the South ex- 
cited the opposition of the more moderate Southerners ; then 
North Carolina took the Confederate side, and supplied a very 
large number of soldiers to the Confederate army. After the 
war there was a good deal of bitterness — carpet-bag rule lasted 
for some time, and there were Klu-klux organizations against 
it ; but now things have quieted down. 

In the present election there are still some ' radical ' candi- 
dates, and some independent ones ; the result of the election 
remains to be seen. In this State, also, the blacks have two 
or three militia companies, but they are deterred from form- 
ing more by the expense. In the present Congress there is 
only one Republican from the State, a white man. He was 
formerly Governor of the State, and was well liked, but I 
understand that he is not to be re-elected. The blacks have 
put up candidates of their own, and are likely to elect a black 
man if they do not lose the seat by division among themselves, 
for two blacks are opposing one another ; -one of them said to 
have been originally a West Indian. In the moimtain regions 
the white people seem now to be generally Democrats. Gen- 
eral Vance, the Governor's brother, is not opposed there. 

As in Virginia, there has been a recent revision of the 
Constitution, modifying that imposed on the State after the 
war — much more so apparently than in Virginia. The State 
judges are still elected by the people, but the justices of the 
peace are nominated by a committee of the Assembly, and 
these justices elect the county commissioners, so that there is 
really no popular local self-government except in towns. How- 
ever, it is said that things are fairly managed, and that by way 
of compromise the committee of the Assembly appoint some 
of both parties. Under this arrangement some blacks are ap- 
pointed to office. The blacks are said not to have ' the same 
cohesion for purposes of public plunder as the whites.' 

Up to 1830 the parties in the United States were Hamil- 
tonian and Jeffersonian, otherwise, Federal and Republican. 
Then they changed their names to those of Whig and Demo- 



800 MY JOURNAL. 

crat. But at the time of the war the Whigs gave up, and the 
present Republicans took their place, so that, in fact, the title 
of Republican has changed sides ; the Jeffersonian Republi- 
cans of former days now being represented by the Democrats, 
while the successors of the Hamiltonian federals are called 
Republicans. 

In North Carolina there was a property qualification for 
the franchise up to 1850, and before 1855 any free blacks 
possessed of property were admitted to the franchise. After 
those dates blacks were excluded, and all whites were admit- 
ted. The system of taxation here seems very much like that 
in Virginia. Besides the property tax there is an income 
tax, from which the necessary expense of living, not to ex- 
ceed $1,000 in any case, is exempted. There is a considera- 
ble State debt, but no attempt is made to pay interest upon 
it at present. The roads are yery bad ; apparently there are 
no metalled roads in all the State, only the common earth 
roads made by the labour of the people themselves, and very 
indifferently made. 

The town of Raleigh is, as usual, very scattered, with 
broad streets quite unpaved, and a good deal of ornamental 
ground about the houses. The population of the place is about 
12,000. The Capitol is a fine building, in a commanding 
situation. I noticed a very large lunatic asylum, and there 
seemed to be a good many other institutions. There are 
many whiskey shops, and a good many churches. The cotton 
market is very busy ; the general market seems well supplied. 
The most common fish in these parts are what are called sea- 
trout ; but I do not think that they are our sea-trout, and 
they do not seem very good. I am told that in the streams 
in the hill-country there is very abundant trout-fishing. 

In the evening I went out to take tea with old Mr. D 

who has a very pretty place, with a very nice house, beautiful 
grounds, and a most pleasant family. All the arrangements 
seemed simple and unpretending, but very nice and comfort- 
able. I had some more talk with the Messrs. D . They 

say local bodies do not borrow very much, because no one 
will trust them in these days. A railway is now being made 
by the State through the mountain country, principally by 
convict labour. I saw in the papers that a man has been 
sentenced to death for burglary, and, on enquiry, I find that 
burglary is a capital offence in this State, though the capital 



NOETH CAEOLINA. 301 

sentence may not be very often carried into effect in such a 
case. On the other hand, corporal punishment is not used 
for minor offences, as it is in Virginia. It seems to be more 
profitable to imprison offenders and work them. 

The next day I visited the State Agricultural and Geolo- 
gical Museum, established in pursuanpe of a law which seems 
now to be the fashion in most of the States. The Agricultu- 
ral Commissioner seems to be an active man ; he has a very 
good agricultural collection, and appears to be doing his best 
to improve the staples of the country. He has also some very 
useful maps. This State runs a great length from east to 
west, and he divides it into three belts. First, the swampy 
country to the east, which is rich, but very much of it is 
under water or under jungle ; when reclaimed it is very good 
for rice and corn and such staples, but, owing to the disre- 
pair of the dykes already mentioned, much of it is in a bad 
way. Then, in the centre of the State, is a country of sandy 
and red soil, much of it covered with pine trees, but also 
very much of it under cotton. This is, in fact, the cotton 
belt. Then there is the high country in the west of the State, 
with a granite soil and an oak vegetation. There they grow 
tobacco and wheat, and raise cotton. They have also a good 
many minerals, and hope to have a good many more if the 
country is opened out. In the far western corner of this 
State is the highest mountain in all the Eastern States, 
nearly 7,000 feet high, I think. The hill-country is said 
to be very charming. In the Agricultural Collections in 
these States I noticed, what I also noticed in the Paris Ex- 
hibition, the absence of any collection of Indian products. 
I think our Indian Agricultural Department should supply 
these. I notice here specimens of the Indian Jawaree, the 
Nile Dhoura, and well known in Southern Europe under I 
forget what name. It is one of the most widely cultivated 
food-grains in the world, but the cultivation does not seem to 
have taken root in the States. The specimens here are called 
' Pampas-corn.' Sweet potatoes are a very great product in 
the Southern States ; they grow to an enormous size, more 
like mangol&s. There are some good specimens of beet and 
mangolds, but I understand that they are not much grown. 
The turnips are very poor. Red clover, I understand, grows 
well. For fertilizers, besides using the cotton seed, they have 
any quantity of good marl and phosphates from the Charles- 
ton beds. 



302 MY JOURNAL. 

I visited Mr. S , the State Superintendent of Educa- 
tion ; he does not give a very good account of his department. 
Education in former days was at a very low ebb, and it does 
not seem to have been very much raised. The Constitution 
requires that the schools should be kept open for at least four 
months in the year, but, owing to want of funds and other 
causes, it appears from the last returns that the average time 
during which each school was actually open was not more 
than eight weeks. But there is some private schooling, and, 
perhaps, half of the grown white people can read and write. 
Yery many of them, however, are quite ignorant, some even 
who hold good farms. The blacks were, at first, very zealous 
about education, but seem to be discouraged, and not to be so 
zealous now. The Education Department has the greater part 
of the State poll-tax, a share of the general property tax, and 
the swampy lands which still belong to the State. There 
seems to have been some difficulty as to the arrangements for 
spending the money, for the last report complains that there 
was a balance unspent in several of the counties. Besides the 
State schools the blacks have the benefit of a good many 
freedmen's schools, still maintained by subscriptions from the 
North. The public money for schools is equally distributed 
between the white and black schools, jper capita. The blacks 
have about half as many schools as the whites. About half 
of the whole number of children are upon the school rolls, 
but the average attendance is only about one-fourth. In this 
State the majority of the teachers are males. The South- 
ern whites do not like to teach black children, and it is 
necessary either to get Northerners or to employ coloured 
teachers. 

Mr. D kindly arranged for me a little trip into the 

country to see the farmers. The land generally seemed to be 
the light red soil which I before mentioned, undulating and 
with much wood about. Cotton is by far the principal culti- 
vation. I thought it certainly not so highly-cultivated a crop 
as the cotton I had seen in Egypt, and the land here is in- 
finitely less valuable than land in Egypt ; but in many fields 
there are this year very good crops, from three-quarters to 
one bale per acre. I was interested in a nice little farm of a 
black man, who produces in a good season almost twenty 
bales of cotton. He was a frank and communicative person ; 
he is totally illiterate, but seems to understand his business as 



NORTH CAROLINA. 303 

a farmer. He pays 3^ bales of cotton as rent, but does not 
know how many acres he has. His cotton crops seemed good, 
though much of the land has been sown with cotton seven 
years in succession. He also grows some corn and some hay 
for his mule ; has no cows, but some pigs. The owner only 
found materials for a very poor house, and he put it up. He 
holds from year to year without a lease, and says that as the 
owner will not improve his house and fences he thinks of try-^ 
ing to get land of his own. Much of the land now under 
crop he has himself cleared from wood, and his rent has been 
increased in consequence. Evidently much of the land in 
these parts has recently been reclaimed from forest. This man 
has one son working with him, who gets a share of the pro- 
ceeds. His wife and daughters assist more or less at harvest 
times. He has only one mule. He has several other sons, 
for one of whom he has bought four acres of land on which 
the son has established a blacksmith's shop. Another son 
works as a farm-labourer at fifty cents a-day, and two others 
rent farms in another part of the country. A little further 
on we went over the farm of a white man. This is also 
rented. The house and farm buildings seemed quite good. 
The farmer was a decent man, but a brother who works with 
him looks dissipated and inferior. He has a wife and family. 
The children go to school. He has a good deal of wood on 
his land, and sells wood in the town. The family do not 
seem very communicative. I have generally noticed that the 
wives of American small farmers are not very free-spoken, 
and keep in the background more than such women would in 
this country. Besides this brother, the farmer has two hired 
servants, one black and the other white ; they are paid fhe 
same, and he says that the black is the best. He too pays a 
rent in cotton— a fixed quantity. Further on we came upon 
a farm of about forty acres, owned by a black. He had a 
good house, but the land seemed rather slovenly, not so well 
cultivated as the rented farm. We then visited the farm of 
a considerable proprietor, who has also a business in the town. 
He cultivates himself between 200 and 300 acres, of which he 
has 115 acres under cotton. His old fathpr looks after the 
farm here. He follows a system of rotation of crops more or 
less, but not very strictly. He sometimes grows cotton two 
or three } T ears in succession without any change. He has a 
ginning mill ; a white man has charge of that. The rest of 



304 MY JOURNAL. 

his labourers are black. He keeps a good number of Alder- 
ney cows, and raises them for sale. His land is all well 
fenced. 

We met many men with carts bringing in produce, some 
white and some black ; they seemed very much on an equality. 
On the roads of the town I saw white and black men working 
together. I noticed that the favourite amusement with the 
negro boys seems to be to drill as mock soldiers, with sticks 
and flags and wooden muskets. 

I visited Mr. T , head of the Shaw Institute, a college 

maintained by Northern subscription to educate black teachers. 
The buildings are good, and it seems a successful institution. 

Mr. T says his pupils turn out well. He is a Bostonian, 

served in the war, and is now rather bitter in his political talk. 
He takes a gloomy view of the prospects of the blacks, and is 
much in favour of their going to Liberia. He says there is no 
justice in the courts either for Northern men or for blacks, 
especially since the local self-government of places populated 
by blacks has been put an end to under the revised Constitu- 
tion. He also says that the blacks are much cheated in regard 
to contracts and wages due to them. In these Southern States 
it is considered to be enough for a debtor to say that he has 
no money. I fear there is much truth in the complaint about 

the frequent non-payment of wages. Mr. T says he is 

quite isolated ; he has no sympathy from the people here. 
He has a bad opinion of the present State Government, but 
a worse opinion of the carpet-bag and negro politicians. He 
says the negro members of the present Assembly are rascals, 
as are also their candidates for Congress. He would rather 
vote for a Democrat than for any of them. He has some 
building work going on ; the master-mason is a black, and two 
white men are amoug the workmen ; but this is an exceptional 
case, and could not ordinarily occur. He thinks the blacks are 
rather slow in intellect and deficient in enterprise, but they are 
otherwise good. Many of them are very religious, but many 
others have very little idea of the Christian religion. 

Every American State has a Secretary of State under the 
Government. I made the acquaintance of the Secretary of 
State here. He is by birth a Mississippian, and was editor of 
a Democratic paper at Wilmington, the port of North Caro- 
lina. Journalists are not confined to their own vocation so 
much as with us ; they often rise to high political offices. 



NOETH C AEOLUS' A. 305 

I also made the acquaintance of a gentleman of fine presence 
and highly civilised manners, who seemed to be a survivor of 
the higher class of proprietors. He seems to have preserved 
his fine estates in South Carolina in spite of the troubles, and 
he maintains a great stud of horses and other attributes of 
grandeur. He offered to drive me over to South Carolina in 
his four-in-hand drag, and to show me the humours of a 
Carolinian election. I thought I had at last found an oppor- 
tunity of seeing one of the Southern aristocratic establish- 
ments, and accordingly accepted his invitation with joy; but 
at the time when the final arrangements were to be made, he 
did not appear ; and, on enquiry, I found that people talked 

irreverently of him as i Spanish B ,' and hinted that he 

had a good many chateaux in Spain. Jsext morning, he still 
did not turn up, so I thought it prudent not to wait, and 
followed out my own plans. This was the only ' sell ' of the 
kind I had during my tour. 

I have been looking at the revised Constitution of this 
State, and at the laws passed in the last biennial session of 
the Legislature — that of 1876-77; also those of one previous 
session — 1868-69. Ey this constitution jury trial may be 
waived- in civil cases, and petty misdemeanours may be tried 
without jury, provided in such case- there is the right of 
appeal. Judges and judges' clerks are elected for eight and 
four years respectively. 2so decree can be executed against 
the State. The revenue is to be raised by a tax on all 
property, an income-tax, licence taxes, and a poll-tax on all 
males between the ages of 21 and 50, not exceeding in 
amount the property-tax on $300, and also not exceeding 
two dollars per poll for the State and county together. Three- 
fourths of the poll-tax is to go to education, and one-fourth 
to the support of the poor. Towns are allowed to impose 
special taxes for schools, both on property and on polls. Xo 
more money may be borrowed by the State unless a special 
tax is at the same time raised and pledged to pay off the loan. 
Local bodies may borrow only after a plebiscite. The educa- 
tion of blacks and whites is to be separate. The Assembly 
may pass a compulsory education law, but has not done so 
yet. The Assembly is to arm and keep up the militia. 
Black companies are to be kept separate from white ones. 
Property of debtors is to be exempt from execution for debt 
to the extent of $500, in the case of personal property, 
20 



60b MY JOURNAL. 

and homesteads to tlie value of $1,000. No deed for the 
sale of a homestead is valid without the consent of the wife. 
The session of the Legislature is limited to sixty days. Not- 
withstanding the shortness of the session, the mass of legisla- 
tion got through is marvellous. Perhaps in the tw T o sessions 
I have examined it may be larger than usual because a 
He vised Constitution had been passed shortly before each of 
these sessions ; but- at any rate the Statute Book shows great 
activity and frequent dealing, in accordance with popular 
wants, with questions we should hardly touch by legislation. 
In the session of 1876-77, two hundred and ninety- three public 
Acts were passed, besides one hundred and fourteen private 
Acts. In the session of 1868-09 two hundred and eighty-three 
public Acts were passed, and of these latter very many were 
large and important Acts. Among the Acts of 1876-77 I 
notice the following: — An Act to give effect to the new 
system of county and local government by nomination 
through a committee of the Assembly, as previously noticed ; 
several Acts regulating judicial functions, jurisdiction, and 
machinery ; consolidated revenue and school Acts ; a valua- 
tion Act ; an election Act ; an Act establishing hypothec in 
favour of landlords ; a strict Sunday-closing Act, without any 
bond fide traveller or other such exemptions, except for 
medical prescriptions (but I am told that the Act is a good 
deal evaded) ; several Acts to prohibit altogether the sale of 
liquor in certain localities, as, for instance, within two miles 
of certain churches and institutions, or other similar areas ; 
and one Act to enable the people of a particular locality to 
decide by vote whether liquor shall be sold or not ; an Act to 
regulate the employment of prisoners and the letting them 
out for hire ; several Acts to enable particular counties to 
levy special taxes ; many Acts incorporating towns or 
amending and regulating the constitution of towns ; many 
Acts to settle local boundaries, local drainage questions, and 
the like ; several Acts to relieve the people of particular 
localities of any hindrance to grazing on unenclosed lands, re- 
straining excessive weighing charges, and the like ; a good 
many Acts to relieve public officers, corporations, or indivi- 
duals from pecuniary or other liabilities ; (most frequently 
these are to give indemnity to sheriffs, for proceedings not 
directly legal) ; several Acts to incorporate railway com- 
panies ; principally to make small branch railways — some of 



NORTH CAROLINA. 307 

them narrow-gauge lines — and to enable counties and corpo- 
rations to subscribe to sucli railways. There is a curious 
game law to prohibit the exportation of partridges or quails, 
dead or alive, from counties near railways, on the ground 
that they are useful for the destruction of insects. There i& 
very much game in this part of the country ; large bags of 
partridges are got. Some of the lands are 'posted,' that is 
preserved ; others are practically free to sportsmen. There is 
another Act, supplementary to a former one, for the protec- 
tion of deer in certain localities. 

I have talked about this legislation with a lawyer who 
seems to be of the Conservative persuasion. He -saj's that 
there is a great deal too much legislation — that localities aud 
individuals get too much done in this way, and that there is 
too much meddling. Acts of this kind are settled out of the 
Legislature by bargaining and give and take, and the more 
general Acts are settled by party caucus before being brought 
into the Legislature. After they are brought in all Bills are 
referred to committees, and after being dealt with by them 
are generally carried in the Assembly without much debate. 
The cloture, or as they call it, ' the previous question,' is 
much used. The limitation of the session to sixty days is a 
recent change — it used to be longer. The legislation is, he 
says, very loose. The Revised Code was very loosely passed, 
and both that and many of the subsequent Acts give much 
trouble to the lawyers. He seems rather a pessimist upon 
the subject. I have not been able quite to understand the 
difference between the public and private Acts, except that 
the latter are of a minor character, e.g., to incorporate small 
towns and villages and Masonic Lodges and other institutions. 
One is to establish a ' Camping Ground ' as a corporation ; 
apparently these camping grounds are kept for religious 
meetings. A good many of these Acts are about toll and 
ferry dues. 

I spent the Sunday here. In the morning I went to a 
black church, but was not very fortunate, as there had been 
some division among the congregation, and the place was 
thinly attended. In the evening I found a better congrega- 
tion at another church. The preacher was very loud, em- 
phatic, and earnest, but there was not very much cohesion in 
what he said ; the singing was good. I went out with Mr. 
B to see a large vineyard that he has started, lie makes 



308 MY JOURNAL. 

very fair wine, but only the native American vines succeed — ■ 
the French vines have quite failed — blight greatly affects 
them and other fruit trees. This does not seem to be much 
of a fruit country. Talking about cotton, I am told that it is 
a very hardy plant, and does not suffer from occasional 
droughts. They say that not only has the cultivation of 
cotton in these parts increased in area, but that it is also 
much better cultivated than it was before the war. They 
now get here crops which before the war were only got in the 
Mississippi Valley. In the case of rented farms it is a matter 
of bargain who is to supply the manure. There are no leases 
and no tenant-rights — but unfortunately the manures of 

commerce do not last much more than one year. Mr. B 

says the black people are yery good and moderate in their 
way of living. They do not eat too much meat — more affect 
a vegetable diet, and are healthy in consequence ; but they 
are very careless in cases of sickness, and wanting in kindness 
to one another when they are ill. In the Municipality of 
Raleigh there are eleven whites and six blacks. The black 

councillors do very well, says Mr. B . He himself is in 

the Council, and having had occasion to differ from some of 
his colleagues had the support of the blacks. 

I am surprised to see how little excitement there is in 
regard to the contested election which is to take place the 
day after to-morrow. There are no placards, and few signs 
of a struggle going on. 

Next day I started for Salisbury, a place in this State 
considerably to the west. The country is still undulating, 
with a mixture of wood and cultivation. We came to the dis- 
trict where tobacco is largely grown, and stopped some time at 
Durhams, the centre of the tobacco manufacture. I had an 
opportunity of going over one of the factories — in fact, one of 
the largest manufactories of smoking tobacco in the United 
States. They also manufacture what is called snuff, but it is 
not really taken as snuff ; it is chewed. They tell me that a 
fine quality of this snuff is very much used by American 
ladies, who put it in their mouths on the pretext of its being 
good for the teeth, but they really chew it, and so consume 
large quantities. I never could get anyone to admit this 
practice, but so said the manufacturers. Here also almost 
all the work is done by blacks, but certain departments — • 
namely, the weighing and finishing off the packages — are ex- 



NORTH CAROLINA. 309 

clusively in the hands of white men. Employers never can 
trust the blacks with anything which requires careful atten- 
tion and accuracy. 

Travelling along I noticed both black and white men in 
the fields and cottages, but apparently the blacks are in the 
majority. They seemed to be the main labouring population. 
The country seems very raviney, and if the land is not cared 
for it is apt to run out into ravines, as frequently happens 
in the hands of careless tenants. I gather that it frequently 
happens that when land has been over-cropped it is aban- 
doned to wood for a time — in all this country wherever it is 
let alone wood springs up. 

I stopped at the Haw River to see the cotton mills there. 
They carry out the whole process of manufacture, from clean- 
ing the cotton as it comes loose from the fields to the manu- 
facture of the cloth and the dyeing of it, in the same not 
very large establishment. The mills are worked by water 
power, as is always the case in this part of the country. AH 
the Atlantic States have the advantage of an unlimited water 
power, the country sloping from the Alleghanies to the sea 
with many running streams, and being in this respect a great 
contrast to most of the country west of the Alleghanies. In 
the mills all the labour is white — there are no blacks em- 
ployed; they are said not to be sufficiently careful. At any 

rate it is not the habit to employ them. Colonel II , the 

manager of the mill which I visited, first said that the labour 
was excellent, but coming to details he found a good many 
faults with his people, and said that he had just turned off 
several families for irregular attendance by way of example. 
I was surprised to hear that the working hours are twelve 
hours a day. That system is fully enforced. The people 
work from seven in the morning to half-past seven in the 
evening, with only half-an-hour for dinner. This really 
seems too much, and I gather that it is very doubtful whether 
more is done in twelve hours than by those who work only 
ten hours. This Southern master seemed to me to be more 
severe with his work people than an English master could be. 
Perhaps he is too much of a military man. The women earn 
about fifty cents a day, the men from seventy-five cents to a 
dollar. The Southern mills seem to have taken, in relation 
to those of the J^orth, much the same position which the 
Indian mills do to those of Lancashire. They manufacture 



310 MY JOURNAL. 

only the coarser qualities of goods, leaving tlie finer qualities 
to the Northern mills. They claim that they have a better 
climate in the South, with less extremes of heat and cold, 
fewer short days, and less need of fuel and lights ; and they 
have great advantage, they say, not only in the saving in the 
carriage of cotton, hut also in that they are saved the serious 
expense of packing it. Their labour, too, is cheaper than 
that in the Xorth. 

Here I went out to see the farm of Mr. B , a Xew Jersey 

man, who has lately established a farm of six hundred acres, 
principally with the object of breeding horses. The road, as 

usual. I find detestable, but Mr. B says the Isew Jersey 

roads are good — they have a good gravel soil there. Pasture 
and cattle-breeding have been somewhat neglected in these 
Southern States, and he hopes to show them the way to im- 
prove. He has a very high opinion of the black people — 
likes them as labourers, and thinks they only need to be 
treated fairly and civilly to get good work out of them ; in 
fact, they work as well as white men, and better : and the 
only complaints against them come from those who do not 
treat them fairly nor pay them regularly. He, too, says 
that there is great irregularity in the payment of wages. 
His only doubt is about the rising generation. He thinks 
the old ex-slaves who were accustomed to work do very well, 
bat the children are not sufficiently under the control of their 
parents, and are growing up with an indisposition to work. 
He is strong on the excellence of the climate here about 800 
feet above the sea. It is never so hot in summer, he says, as 
in the Xorthern Atlantic States. The thermometer does not 
usually rise above SO degrees, and the winters are mild and 
good. There seems to be no doubt that there is a great change 
in the winter climate as one passes South through Virginia 
into the Carolinas and Georgia. 

I had met in the train an old Scotchman, Mr. M , who 

has been upwards of forty years settled in this State. He is 
a builder by trade, and has done much work of that kind, but 
has now acquired land and settled down. He took me to dine 

with a friend, Mr. H , who keeps a store at Haw River, 

and who is married to a Xew England wife. This lady gave 
us a very nicely-cooked meal, very neatly served. Throughout 
the States it does seem that the Xew England people are in 
many respects superior. Mr. M very kindly insisted on 



NORTH CAROLINA. 311 

taking me to his house at Salisbury, where I was most com- 
fortably accommodated. In the morning we walked about the 

town, which seemed a nice rural place. Mr. M 's wife is 

also a New Englander, but they are all now thoroughly South- 
ern in feeling, both as to the war and as to the question of 

slavery. According to Mr. M the Northerners were tire 

first slave-holders, and when they found that slaves were not 
a profitable property in the North they sold them South, and 
went in for abolition. In the war the North Carolinian people 
did not go heartily with the South- till their feelings got 
embittered by the great destruction of property and other ill- 
usages to which they were subjected by the Northern armies. 
A sister of his own was burnt out by the Federal soldiers and 
died from exposure. He and his son-in-law, who is also a con- 
tractor for public works, told me a good deal about the blacks, 
whom they have much employed. They decidedly like them 
as labourers. In the North the white men get higher wages 
and do more work. There they will not allow the competi- 
tion of the negro ; especially the foreigners — Irishmen being 
most prominent — will not ; but the Southern climate is too 
hot for the Irish — they do not care to come South ; while the 
Southern whites not being anxious to work as hired labourers, 
do not object to the negroes performing that function. Thus 
the blacks are not bull-dosed on labour questions, and alto- 
gether get on very well. AVages in the South are certainly a 
good deal lower than in the North, and the negroes can live 
on much cheaper and poorer food than the Northern whites. 
Most of the Southern whites have land more or less, and many 
of them employ, or hope to employ, negroes. They are always 
glad to hire them when they can afford to do so. The better 
and more moderate of the Southern whites certainly wish to 
conciliate and utilise the negroes. 

Mr. M , while speaking so well of the negroes in other 

respects, dwelt very much on that which I had before heard, 
their want of family affection and kindness to one another in 
sickness. He tells the story of a son whom he nursed through 
small-pox, and who was then set to nurse his own father who 
had taken the disease, but deserted the father and left him to 
die. There seems to be a general concurrence of assertion, that 
in slave times it was necessary for the white masters and mis- 
tresses to see that the black children were looked after and that 
the sick were nursed. Now these things are much neglected. 



312 MY JOURNAL. 

Mr. M has a good deal of land. Part of it is farmed 

by one of his sons, who is also a medical man. Part is let to 
a black man on. shares, and part to a white man. The great 
difficulty, he says, is the tendency to let down the land. We 
visited a suburb almost entirely inhabited by blacks. Most of 
these people own their own house and patches of land — some 
one, some two, some three, some six acres, and they seem to 
get on very well. Many of them appeared to be of mixed 
blood. One man was quite fair with blonde hair, bnt quite 
woolly. Several among them are blacksmiths ; they affect 
that trade a good deal. 

Having occasion to send a telegram here, I noticed the ex- 
cessive charge — one dollar for eight words to ]S r ew York. I 
have since fonnd that this is so in all ont-of-the-way places. 
The telegraphs in the United States are entirely in the hands 
of monopolist private companies, and they charge just in pro- 
portion to the absence of competition. There is no fixed rule 
with reference to distance, or anything else. 

This is the day of the general election. I went to see the vot- 
ing. There is a contest between two white candidates, but one 
of them is an Independent and seems to be supported by the 
blacks. There is little sign of excitement. The ballot-box is 
kept at an open window, and the proceedings are conducted 
in a loose sort of way. Half a dozen people, officials and 
others, are in the room behind the box. There is no pretence 
of secrecy in regard to the ballot papers. Papers with the 
names of the candidates are lying about. Each voter takes 
one and gives it to be put into the box. I understand they 
generally pride themselves on voting openly. The blacks 
seem to be voting freely ; there is no sign of intimidation. 
After breakfast I started for South Carolina. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 

I entered the ' Petrel ' State of South Carolina on the 
day of the election, and the first station in that State that we 
came to was full of people dressed in the famous red shirt, 
which we also saw continually at all the stations as we came 
along. In this part of the State there does not seem to be a 
very serious contest ; it is only in the lower regions, where 
the black population is very numerous, that there is any 



SOUTn CAROLINA. 313 

doubt about the result of the elections. The constitution of 
South Carolina is still that which was imposed upon it after 
the war. It has not been revised, and is still of the popular 
character dictated by Northern ideas. All the county and 
local officers are elected ; there is no such system of nomina- 
tion as prevails in North Carolina. Here the elections for 
Congress, for the State Assembly, and for the local offices, all 
take place together, — are all entered in one 'ticket.' Mr. 
Wade Hampton, the present Governor, is a moderate Demo- 
crat, and his re-election is not opposed on this occasion. 
Where there is a serious contest it is in regard to the mem- 
bers of Congress and State Assembly, and the local officers. 
Red shirts now seem to be only a party badge. I saw no 
appearance of actual 'bull-dosing,' but there were many 
signs of election-day — many people about, a good deal of 
talking and shouting and galloping about on horseback, and 
some few symptoms of whisky. There were a good many 
negroes about, and they did not look terrorised. There is no 
need to terrorise them just here, as they have no chance — the 
whites having it all their own way. A few blacks go with the 
Democrats, and I saw one or two of them wearing the red shirt. 
On my arrival in Columbia, the capital of the State, in the 
evening, things seemed pretty quiet : the election had passed 
without any serious trouble. 

IFhe country between Salisbury and Columbia is still 
much like what I had before seen, but it became almost 
hilly. The tobacco country was left behind a long way back. 
All this through which I pass to-day is principally cotton 
country. Much of the cotton plant is very short and small, 
but apparently very productive ; many fields are at this time 
very heavy with cotton. It is quite a profitable cultivation 
when an average of half a bale an acre is obtained. If some 
fields yield a good deal more, there is also a good deal of 
poor cultivation which does not yield more than a quarter of 
a bale, or even less than that. Cotton requires much weed- 
ing, and if that is neglected the result is bad. On all hands 
I am told that the cotton cultivation has greatly extended 
in the upper country. It now grows right up to the ' Blue 
Mountains,' as they are called. Some is cultivated by whites, 
but more on land owned by whites, with the aid of black 
labour. 

I met in the train a Canadian barrister taking his family 



314 MY JOURNAL. 

to Aikin in Georgia. Some places in Georgia, and still more 
in Florida, are great health resorts for northern people. In 
the winter the climate there is said to be very good. This 
gentleman gives a very favourable account of the state of 
things in Canada. According to him they have a selection 
of the best of English and American institutions. They 
have free elections, and a fair representation of all classes, 
but the judges and most of the higher public officers are 
nominated by the Dominion Government. Now-a-days, he 
says, almost no one in Canada is favourable to annexation to 
the States. The Church of England was disestablished in 
1848. The clergy got life-rents of their incomes, and were 
allowed to commute. The Church in Canada is now exceed- 
ingly well off. The proximity of the great lakes, which never 
freeze, makes the climate of Upper Canada milder than that 
of other northern regions, but rather damp. He is altogether 
against the idea of a Customs Union with the United States. 
lie says the manufacturing interest in Canada is not very 
strong, but the people of the States are determined to ruin it 
by underselling them, and that cannot be allowed. 

After one has heard so much about the deplorable state of 
things in South Carolina, I am struck with the good and pros- 
perous appearance of the country towns along the road. Seve- 
ral new railways are in process of construction — one that I saw 
was narrow gauge — in fact, in America narrow gauge railwys 
seem to be a good deal in favour for short branches and broken 
ground. In spite of all their misfortunes and of the constant 
complaints of want of money, people seem to be recuperating 
themselves wonderfully. 

At Columbia I went to the Wheeler House Hotel, the prin- 
cipal in the place, a respectable hotel, but not quite up to the 
mark of those I had hitherto seen. I am relieved to find that 
mosquitoes have not yet made their appearance. 

Next morning I found an account of the elections in the 
papers. As there are no Republican papers here, one cannot 
hear that side. The local papers assert that this has been the 
quietest election ever known. There has been no violence, 
only some attempts at fraud on the part of the blacks, which 
have been promptly and properly repressed. I observe, how- 
ever, that it is admitted that at several places the United 
States supervisor, who is entitled to be present at each polling 
place, has protested against -the rejection of black votes. At 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 315 

one place near this some young men are said to have done good 
service by putting a stop to the frauds of the blacks. It is 
suggested that some black employes who voted wrong must be 
dismissed. It seems to be assumed that all the elections in 
this State have certainly gone in favour of the Democrats. 
That was indeed a foregone conclusion. 

After breakfast I went to the Capitol — there is always a 
Capitol in each State — and paid my respects to Governor 
Wade Hampton, to whom I had an introduction. He if gene- 
rally reputed to be a very superior man, and evidently has 
great influence. Originally a Carolina man, he had also large 
property in Mississippi, like a good many others of the rich 
people in this part of the country ; but he was quite ruined 
by the war. Cotton, being the great resource of the Southern 
States, was captured or burnt by the Federal Armies, and he 
lost 5,000 bales. He now lives, I understand, in a cottage in 
a humble way. All his conversation gave one the idea of a 
very moderate man. His private secretary and nephew, Mr. 
M , however (a gentleman who kindly gave me much in- 
formation), is a pessimist. He will have it that both in South 
Carolina and in the Mississippi Valley cultivation has on the 
whole decreased. The coast lands of this State, and the sugar 
lands of Louisiana have, he says, gone to rack and ruin, and he 
tells of the enormous depreciation of property in Xew Orleans 
and on the banks of the Mississippi. He admits, however, the 
extension of the cotton cultivation in the higher parts of the 
State, but says that there is a great deal too much of it, and it 
does not pay. Mr. Wade Hampton talks very strongly of the 
misconduct and fraud, of the carpet-bag Government which 
was displaced last year. At one time, lie sr.s, 98 out of 12i 
members of the Assembly were blacks, and there was unlim- 
ited fraud and stealing. He gave me the report of the com- 
mittee appointed to investigate these frauds. The debt of the 
State, he says, is not so very large — about seven million dollars ; 
he would rather pay than repudiate. Meantime, while the 
matter is under the consideration of the Legislature, the money 
for the interest is lodged in the Treasury. Although the 
county officers are elected, it seems that the justices of the 
peace are nominated by the Governor, and are now mostly 
Democrats, but some of the other side are nominated also. 
Some blacks are put upon juries, but not many. ' We give 
them more than they gave us,' says Mr. M . 



316 MY JOURNAL. 

The Governor speaks of the black population in terms simi- 
lar to what I had heard before. He says the better class of 
whites certainly want to conserve the negro ; the lower whites 
are less favourable, and will not admit them to social equality ; 
but the bitterness is only political and not carried into labour 
questions. 

I had a good deal of talk with several gentlemen in the 
office, or who happened to be about the Capitol.. They all 
admit that the ballot at elections is an utter farce, and that 
there is no pretence at secrecy. A common dodge is to print 
tickets in imitation of those of the enemy, and to foist them 
upon . illiterate voters of the other side. More frequently the 
ballot is ' stuffed ' by putting in several thin tickets wrapt to- 
gether. The rule is that if more vote tickets are found in the 
box than the number of voters the excess number is drawn out 
by a man blindfolded for the purpose. He can very well dis- 
tinguish the tickets of his own party ; they are generally on a 
different kind of paper. They gave me one of the Democratic 
tickets used in the present election for this county of Richland. 
It is a piece of the thinnest tissue paper, about a couple of 
inches long by an inch broad, upon which are printed the 
names of the whole of the candidates for the various offices 
and seats in the Legislature. This ticket comprises the vote 
for the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, 
State Superintendent of Education, Comptroller-General, Ad- 
jutant and Inspector-General, State Treasurer, Attorney-Gen- 
eral, member of Congress for the third district, one State Sen- 
ator, five representatives of the county in the State Assembly. 
Local School Commissioner, and three county Commissioners, 
They say there never was an election without fraud, and some, 
no doubt, there was on this occasion. A young man, evidently 
one of those referred to in the newspaper paragraph which I 
have mentioned, says he went to a polling place about six 
miles distant. The negroes were very disappointed in the be- 
lief that they were losing the election, and there was much 
fear of their becoming violent and smashing the ballot-boxes. 
Fifteen or twenty young whites banded together for the pro- 
tection of the boxes, lighted a fire and sang songs. Presently 
the negroes, finding they could do nothing, came round and 
joined in the songs, and so all went well. They speak very 
bitterly of the independent candidates. They say more stress 
is laid on the election for Congress than on those for the State 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 317 

Assembly, because the next Presidential election may depend 
a good deal upon the majority in Congress. The negroes. are 
amenable to the whites in all things except elections. In elec- 
tion matters they have taken an independent line, and insist 
npon voting Republican. The preachers influence them very 
much, and also the negro women, who are very strong Repub- 
licans. These women nsed to believe that if a Democrat gov- 
ernor were elected they would not be allowed to wear veils, 
and that is a privilege of freedom which they prize greatly. 
My informants account, however, for their victory in the elec- 
tions by saying that they managed to influence many of the 
blacks. They agreed among themselves that each man should 
bring at least one negro to the poll and as many more as pos- 
sible. They suggest that many negroes, though ostensibly 
voting Republican in order to deceive their wives and preach- 
ers, really voted Democratic, their own inclination being that 
way. They say the red shirt was merely a political emblem 
got up in mockery of some phrase about ' bloody shirts ' used 
by an Indiana senator. It never meant anything more serious. 
The Ku-klux was at one time bad, but not so very bad ; they 
sometimes tarred and feathered, but seldom murdered. In 
short, South Carolina is altogether not so black as it has been 
painted, according to their account. 

After the labours of the election campaign the Governor is 
going out hunting for two or three days, and I have not had 
the opportunity of seeing very much of him, but he has been, 
very friendly, and has given me introductions to the county of 
Beaufort, where the negroes are thickest, and where he advises 
me to go if I want to see a negro county. What they call 
hunting in America is not hunting in our sense, but shooting ; 
either ordinary shooting, or drives for big game. This hunt- 
ing expedition turned out very disastrous for poor Governor 
Hampton. Riding to a place where he expected the deer to 
pass, he was thrown in the forest, and his leg smashed in a 
frightful manner. He was entirely alone, and remained on 
the ground for hours before he was discovered, though he 
managed too keep firing his gun to attract attention. He was 
long in a very precarious state. I much hope that he has 
quite recovered. 

Walking out in the neighbourhood of the town, I got into 
conversation with a coloured man, apparently connected with 
the city waterworks, and I talked to him about the election. 



318 MY JOURNAL. 

He says the Democrats were to win in this district : that was 
known, but it was done by the fraudulent stuffing of the ballot- 
boxes. The Republicans really have a majority of 2,500, and 
the coloured people have voted steadily on the Republican 
side, but they are cheated because they have not the control of 
the ballot-boxes. He too explained the mode of stuffing the 
boxes and the other dodges as I had heard them before. He 
says that while the Republicans were in power they allowed a 
fair representation of the other side, but now that the Demo- 
crats have got into power they control all the returning officers, 
and take everything, leaving nothing for the other side. He 
seemed a very sensible, intelligent man, and his story appears 
at least as good as that told on the other side. 

This place suffered terribly when it was taken by Sher- 
man's army, and it is a hotly-disputed question whether the 
firing and destruction were done by Sherman's troops or by 
the Confederates themselves to prevent the cotton, &c, falling 
into Sherman's hands. My black friend attributes the injury 
to Columbia to the Confederates, but does not put it in an un- 
reasonably wicked light. The town seems now to have very 
much recovered from the destruction. It lias been much 
rebuilt, and looks very well. Many of the best houses were 
built by the carpet-bag officials. The Capitol seems a fine 
building ; all the public offices are in it, as is usually the case. 
There are wide grassy streets lined with good trees, many of 
Jliem magnolias and other southern plants. The houses have 
pretty grounds about them, and I notice some particularly 
thriving deodars. The situation of the town is pretty, upon a 
considerable river. The country about is very well wooded, and 
the woods are now beautifully coloured, the autumnal tints be- 
ing at their best. I notice several varieties of fir trees. Cows 
graze freely about on the grassy avenues. There are several 
iron works here, where they make small engines and do other 
such work. It is remarkable how the iron trade seems to be 
developing throughout the States. I understand that in all 
these works except one, they employ exclusively white labour. 
There are no mills on the fine river here, but there is a small 
canal which it is proposed to enlarge as a State work in the 
hope of establishing mills. Apparently, there is not in this 
State the prohibition against undertaking public works which 
has recently been put into the Constitution of a good many 
States. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 319 

I looked into the Penitentiary: the system seems rather 
loose, and intramural labour does not pay. There were from 
ten to twelve black men to one white, but they all work 
together. 

Lotteries are prohibited in most of the States, including 
this; but I saw that the Louisiana State Lottery, drawn 
monthly, is everywhere largely advertised. 

Mr. T , Superintendent of Education, kindly took me 

out for a drive. The place seems altogether very nice, and 
the climate very good. The carpet-baggers have now almost 
entirely disappeared, and the best of the houses are for sale 
cheap. A good many have been bought by Northern people, 
who come to reside here for the sake of the climate. 

Mr. T gives a tolerable account of the education in 

this State, but besides the difficulty of obtaining efficient 
superintendence and efficient schoolmasters, there is a very 
great difficulty about money. The schoolmasters are paid by 
certificates of indebtedness, and thus are heavily in arrears. 
While Southerners can hardly be got to teach blacks, good 
Northerners will not come on these terms, especially as they 
are only employed for a few months in the year. Such as 
they are, the schools are open for three, four, or five months. 

A very sad thing here is the beautiful university buildings 
and college-close, like one of the best of English colleges, but 
now quite given up. It seems that before the war this Uni- 
versity was exceedingly good and had a high reputation, but 
the funds were lost or stolen, and of late years it has been a' 
question with the Legislature whether to provide for the pay- 
ment of debts, or to spend money on education. The former 
policy prevailed, and education has been neglected. There is 
still kept up the beautiful college library, and the fine old 
ex-president of the college gets a small living as librarian. He 
says that the difficulty about setting up the college again arises 
from this — that the people of the different churches have set 
up sectarian colleges of their own, and are against this general 
college. 

For want of funds the Agricultural and Survey Depart- 
ments, for which the Constitution provides, have not yet 

been started in this State. Mr. T says that the school 

poll-tax is not half collected, and the property tax is very 
irregularly collected — and what is paid is generally paid in 
debt-certificates or notes of a bankrupt State Bank. By this 



320 MY JOURNAL. 

constitution non-payment of taxes does not deprive of the 
right of voting. The negroes are zealous to learn and are 
getting on a good deal, but, like others he says they are de- 
cidedly inferior to white men beyond a certain point. The 
carpet-baggers at first tried mixed schools, but even they did 
not continue that long ; it was found necessary to separate 
them. Some of the mulattos and free blacks were better off 
before the war than they are now. They suffered in their 
property like everyone else during the war. The enfranchised 
slaves -do not care for them, and none of them now are lead- 
ing men. One great difficulty about schools is that the local 
school managers are continually changed at every election — 
even without change of party, people often change their local 
officers. 

I visited Dr. C , the Northern President of the Bene- 
dict Institute for blacks. He seems a very fair and moderate 
man. Talking of the elections, he says that the blacks ' saw 
that the tide was going against them — they had no leaders 
and no organisation, and had no funds for election purposes — 
it is characteristic of them under such circumstances to show 
no energy. They have caved in and allowed themselves to 
be beaten by fair means or foul. 

He, too, thinks that the intellect of the blacks is inferior 
to that of whites, but among the blacks there are some who 
are very superior, and the mulattos are better than the ordi- 
nary blacks. He understands that in slave times the slave- 
holders used to distinguish between different races of blacks, 
some being intellectually as well as physically superior to 
others; but they are now so mixed up that the races can 
hardly be distinguished. I walked out with him, and saw a 
large negro location. In most cases houses and small patches 
of land were owned by the people themselves, and they 

seemed tolerably well-to-do. Dr. C , however, says that 

they do not save much ; they are certainly wanting in thrift 
and prudence, spend money as they get it, and live from hand 
to mouth. We came upon a row of very nice regular houses, 
and on inquiry I found that after emancipation these houses 
were given to the negroes by their late master. This master 

was a General P , whose acquaintance I afterwards made. 

He is about the most charming old gentleman I have yet seen 
in America — English of the best kind in speech and manner. 
He has been intimate with many of our most distinguished 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 321 

men. He claims that, if they had been left alone emancipa- 
tion would have been brought about in a beneficial way in 
course of time. As it is, there have been frightful upheavals 
and great injustice in achieving that object ; but he now 
hopes for the best. The negroes hereabouts have, he says, 
sometimes difficulty in finding work. They cannot get on 
without the white man's guidance — with that they do very 
well. 

I had also an opportunity of conversing with a coloured 
preacher, a clever and influential man. He seems, however, 
very extreme in his views. He says that during the election 
there was gross intimidation, and much unfair influence, but 
in spite of it all the blacks voted Republican as solid as ever. 
Nevertheless, the boxes were stuffed and the majority stolen. 
The election commissioners are all on one side, and so are 
the newspapers, and they openly published violent threats. 
The negroes will never get justice ; there is nothing for them 
but to go to Liberia. There is an extreme party here opposed 
to Mr. Wade Hampton, of which General Geary is the leader. 
He openly says that the blacks were made by God to till the 
soil, and may do that, but they cannot be allowed to vote and 
hold land, else they would be masters, and the whites slaves. 
Wages are, he says, low here. In some country parts labour- 
ers do not get more than six dollars a month, besides rations, 
and that is not paid. He does not think much of Wade 
Hampton. He is only a politician, and is moderate for the 
sake of place. He does not deny that, politics apart, white 
and black people get on together well enough ; but the latter 
will never have their proper share of power. He says juries 
are not fairly constituted — nine-tenths of them are always 
whites. Even under the Carpet-baggers all the Judges were 
white. Throughout the United States all elections and all 
administrations are corrupt, and not likely to be better — all is 
bad. 

I have been inquiring about the tenure of land. Here, as 
elsewhere, large farms seldom succeed. Most of the whites 
have land, more or less. Some are good, but others are a poor 
lot, uneducated and unthrifty, especially a class, of whom there 
are many in the district near this, called ' Sand-hillers.' They 
are said to be the descendants of assigned convicts of former 
days. They have poor farms and poor soil ; what little work 
they do they do themselves ; they have no servants. They 
21 



322 MY JOUKNAL. 

bring wood into the town for sale. I saw a good many of 
them, and certainly they are a poor-looking set. About forty 
per cent, of the white voters here cannot write their names. 
The blacks have as yet got comparatively little land of their 
own, and chiefly cultivate as tenants on various terms, gen- 
erally on the share system ; but, as I have elsewhere noticed, 
they have very frequently houses and small patches. There 
is now great abundance of land for sale in this State ; but 
wages are very low, and, under the Carpet-bag Government, 
taxation was very high, so that there was not much chance 
of saving, and few have money to buy land. The black 
preacher says a good many blacks have bought land and paid 
for it, but have been cheated out of it, the titles proving to 
be bad. 

I have been talking about the churches, asking whether 
the black and white churches go together under the same 
system of Church government. It seems that most of the 
churches here are Baptist, and chiefly on the congregational 
system. The Methodists have a Church system, but they are 
divided into North and South, and black and white Churches. 
There is no general organisation common to both. The 
Presbyterian black Churches, however, send delegates to the 
General Presbyterian Assembly. 

There seems now no doubt that the Democrats have car- 
ried all the elections throughout this State. There has been 
no sort of compromise ; they have taken everything — Con- 
gress, State, Assembly, and all the county offices, excepting 
only in Beaufort County. Those districts where the blacks 
are ten to one have now returned Democrats. 

I gather that the United States election supervisors were 
a poor lot — often coloured men ; and they were frequently 
hustled and insulted. One of them was arrested on some 
frivolous pretext. According to one Northerner nothing but 
United States troops at every polling-place will prevent a 
strong and embittered minority from triumphing over a weak 
majority. In this part of the country the Republican or 
Padical party is dead for the present. The victory of the 
whites is now so complete that there is certainly peace such as 
there was not before. 

I travelled from Columbia to Charleston through the 
night in a very comfortable sleeping-car belonging to the 
local railway. In the glimpses of the night I could only see 



SOUTH CAKOLINA. 323 

that we passed through a great deal of pine-forest. At day- 
light I found that there were many tall pines near the route ; 
but approaching Charleston the country became more open, 
with fine soil and good cultivation. Strawberries, cabbages, 
sweet potatoes, and common potatoes seemed to be largely 
grown. The potatoes are not yet killed by frost. I went to 
the Charleston Hotel, which was comfortable. After break- 
fast I walked about the town. The site is flat, and the coun- 
try not striking, but the vegetation is extremely fine — very 
much of a semi-tropical character. There are many orange- 
trees in full bearing and other fruit-trees and shrubs. Many 
of the houses are extremely good, and very prettily arranged, 
with gardens about them. The climate here is said to be 
very good ; the hot weather is tempered by the trade-winds 
and sea-breezes. In summer the thermometer rises to about 
90°, and there is little hard frost in the winter. The mag- 
nolias and evergreen oaks are fine trees, and very abundant. 

I called on Colonel T , a gentleman engaged in the 

cotton business, who gave me much assistance. He introduced 
me to the Carolina Club, and to several gentlemen there, with 
whom I had a great deal of talk. They say they had hoped 
the negroes would have turned out good small cultivators and 
paid rent, and that they, as owners, would have had an easy 
time ; but the negro fails in that respect ; he is improvident 

and careless, lets down the land, and spoils it. But Mr. S , 

a gentleman who manages a large rice estate, and lives there, 
happened to come in. lie gives quite a different account ; he 
says that the higher part of the estate is let out to negroes 
who really cultivate exceedingly well, and raise cotton much 
better than he could have expected. He charges $30 to 
each family, and they cultivate as much cotton and corn as 
'they can, he undertaking to take out half the rent in labour, 
and in practice generally taking out the whole in this shape 
by employing them at fifty cents a day on the rice-lands, 
and setting off the wages against the rent. When I put to 
the other gentlemen the contradiction which this account 
seemed to imply to their views, they said that these were 
especially good negroes ; that they came from the upper 
country, where they had been mixed with whites and accus- 
tomed to labour. It seems that during the war there were 
large migrations. Many from this part of the country went 
up with the Northern armies, and many up-country negroes 



324 MY JOURNAL. 

came down with them.; One gentleman said he had heard of 
a large number of negroes from an estate in this neighbour- 
hood who settled up-country, and, he is told, now all own 
land. It seems generally agreed that the negroes are very 
good labourers, and do well when they have white men to 
look' over them and set them an example. The native whites 
manage them better and get more work out of them than 
any Northerners or foreigners. When, however, the negroes 
get together in masses and out of the control and direction 
of white men they are apt to go back. These gentlemen 
instanced a case of some blacks on estates within their own 
knowledge, who were good mechanics before the war, but now 
are worth very little. There are few blacks among the higher 
mechanics, but some of them earn very high wages here as 
stevedores for lading ships. In the cold weather a good 
many white people have come up to work here, but they do 
not seem to have been very successful. Some Irish come, 
but I do not gather that they are here now. Irish women, 
however, much improved and civilised, one finds everywhere. 
The housemaid at the hotel here is an Irishwoman, and seems 
very decent and good. She came originally from Dublin, 
married an American, who was killed in the war, on the Con- 
federate side, as was also her brother, and now she has settled 
down into service. 

The people I have met to-day are much interested in rice, 
which is cultivated in this part of the country. It had gone 
out very much: Since the war some estates have been quite 
abandoned. For instance, I hear of one estate which was 
worth 500,000 dollars before the war, and for which after the 
war 275,000 dollars was offered and refused ; it has since 
wholly broken down and fallen out of cultivation, and was 
bought the other day for 6,000 dollars by some gentlemen 
who are trying to resuscitate it. On the other hand, a good 
many estates, the owners of which were able to hold on and 
keep up the cultivation, are now doing pretty well. The 
truth, however, seems to be that rice is only grown in the 
United States by the aid of an exorbitant protective duty, 
and it is used in America only — none is exported. The 
Indian rice beats it in foreign markets. People here say 
they are no longer for free trade ; there is nothing like pro- 
tection. The jute-bagging used for rice and cotton is highly 
protected. Here they have only one jute-mill, lately erected, 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 325 

but they hope to have more. They are trying experiments 
to grow jute, and jute- seed for the purpose has lately been 
distributed. 

The Sea Islands, on which the long cotton grows, or used 
to grow, lie along the shore in this neighbourhood and south- 
wards to Savannah. They are not islands out in the ocean, 
but flat tracts along the shore, more or less separated from 
the mainland by narrow channels. The soil is very good, 
but the only culture to which it has been hitherto very spe- 
cially devoted was the long-staple cotton, the cultivation of 
which has now greatly declined. These cotton lands form 
the outermost belt next the sea ; behind them are the rice 
lands, which usually lie along the rivers and fresh-water 
estuaries. Behind the rice lands and the pine-belt come the 
upland cotton lands. All the cotton grown in this part of 
the world, except the Sea Island, is classed as upland. New 
Orleans cotton is classed separately, and seems to be a better 
and stronger staple. There is still more cotton shipped from 
New Orleans than from Charleston or any other port. The 
long cotton, or Sea Island, is a different variety of the plant 
from the common cotton. It requires more careful cultiva- 
tion, and produces very much less cotton — generally only a 
third or a fourth of the quantity that is got from a good field 
of short cotton. It still fetches a very much higher price 
than the short cotton, but not so high in proportion as it 
did before, and in consequence comparatively little of it is 
raised. 

In the evening I went a little way out into the country. 
There seems to be an immense cultivation of strawberries 
here for the Northern markets. One sees great fields of 
strawberries. There is a good drive, metalled with oyster- 
shells and lined with fine magnolias, called Magnolia Avenue. 
The beauty and fashion of Charleston were out for the even- 
ing, principally chiving fast-trotting horses. I am told that 
there were and still are some French mulattos in Charles- 
ton in a much higher position than the ordinary coloured 
people — like those in a considerable position in New Orleans 
— but they form an exclusive class by themselves, and are 
not so well off as they were bef ore the war, in which they lost 
heavily. Altogether the ' genteel ' coloured people keep very 
much to themselves. 

Next morning I called on Mr. A— — , a gentleman who 



326 MY JOURNAL. 

was most kind in assisting me. He is interested in the 
Phosphate Beds, and he showed be a large collection of fine 
fossils found there, in excellent preservation. I also called on 
the City Superintendent of Schools, who is at the same time 
the Episcopalian clergyman. He lived in a poor house, and 
did not seem a prosperous parson. He is a Carolina man, and 
does not think much of the blacks ; but the eity schools are, he 
says, good. I saw many nice-looking girls and young women 
going to school, with their books. The Charleston people 
generally impress me favourably. The place is not what it 
has been, but on the whole it is wonderfully well maintained, 
and the citizens make the best of the situation. 

To-day I made the acquaintance of Mr. "W , a lawyer, 

who has just been elected to the State Legislature, and is a 
very pleasant and well-informed man ; and also of one or two 
other gentlemen. Talking over South Carolina affairs, I 
gather that the principal people of this State were not so far 
gone in difficulties before the war as those in Virginia. Many 
of them had great plantations in Mississippi, to which they 
transferred large bodies of their surplus slaves ; and at one 
time they made a great deal of money, in consequence of 
which they took to expensive living, keeping racehorses and 
other fine things. When cotton fell in price their profits 
diminished, but they looked for future improvement, and did 
not mind some debt. After that came the war and great 
destruction of property, especially of cotton, the stores of 
which were captured or plundered, while the whole of the 
slave property was lost by emancipation. Land became a 
drug in the market, and thev had no means of meeting their 
debts ; and so it was that many of them have now become 
very poor. There seems to be no doubt that many ladies who 
were once well-to-do now fill almost menial offices or take in 
sewing; and the estates and places which were finely kept 
have now deteriorated, especially those in the low country, 
where, since long cotton has gone down in the world, they 
have not succeeded in finding other suitable staples. The 
Charleston people say that if only this low country could be 
restored Charleston must still flourish. The negro labour is 
very good, and there is great abundance of it ; but the negroes 
like regular pay, and do not care to be kept in arrears or paid 
by cheques, as is too often the case. A cheque is an order on 
the employer's store. If the negro is in debt it is set off ; if 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 327 

not, lie is kept waiting for his money, or is obliged to take 
goods on the truck system. 

I went to see Mr. D , a pure negro and notable char- 
acter. He has been in England and in .Africa, and has seen 
the world. He is now a justice of the peace here — Trial Jus- 
tice, they call it. He was appointed by Wade Hampton. He 
seems a very characteristic, pleasant, amusing sort of person, 
and talks well. He was educated in the North. He is in 
favour of Wade Hampton, who, he says, appoints black men 
when they really are educated and fit. I hear he quite holds 
his own as a justice. 

I also made the acquaintance of R , a model Demo- 
cratic negro and friend of the white man. His story seemed 
to me a little too much as if it had been rehearsed. He tells 
very fluently how he was a slave, and how he was educated by 
his mistress ; and how after emancipation his master and 
mistress, being reduced to poverty, he supported them both, 
and eventually buried them both — he lays great stress upon 
the burying. He stuck to the whites in bad times amid the 
persecution of his own race, and now is a prosperous livery- 
stable keeper, and a friend of the party in power, while his 
Own race have also become friendly to him. 

Mr. W invited me to go over with him to his house, 

on the other side of the river, in what is called Christ-Church 
parish, where I should see blacks in great abundance ; and we 
started together. A parish is a mere popular term for a tract 
of country ; it is not now a real division, civil or ecclesiastical. 
Since I have come into the land of blacks I notice signs of 
the abundance of labour. Instead of having to carry one's 
own bag and take care of one's self, as one has in the North, 
one is constantly beset by blacks who want to carry one's 
things and do all sorts of services for one. Crossing over, I 
talked with a large fruit and vegetable farmer, who raises for 
the Northern markets. He employs nothing but black 
labour, and finds it very good indeed ; but, again, he has 
something to say against the blacks, alleging that they are 
loose and immoral in their ways, and dishonest in small things. 
Women work as well as men. In this Christ-Church parish 
tl e negroes are almost fifty to one. The whole of this part 
of the country outside of the town is almost entirely a negro 

country. This is part of the county which Mr. W is to 

represent. He seems to be on extremely friendly terms with 



328 MY JOURNAL. 

the people, but frankly admits that he cannot get them to 
vote for him. In the evening we went out and saw the negro 
population making their purchases in the village. The people 
do not seem to be of a high type — rather inferior, I thought, 
to those I had seen up-country, but very good-natured and 
cheerful. They seem to have got very much into the ways of 
white people, and do their shopping much as white people do 
in other parts of the world. The only difference seems to be 
that they are black, and perhaps a little dirtier than the aver- 
age of civilised mankind. The storekeepers are Germans — 
they seem almost to monopolise that sort of business ; the 

negroes scarcely ever rise to keep stores. Mr. W talks and 

shakes hands with the blacks, and they reciprocate and laugh 
immoderately when he tells them that he has beaten them this 
election, and means to do so again. Certainly there does 
not seem to be any of the bitterness which one might have 
expected, after all one has heard of South Carolina, especially 
considering the way in which this election has been carried. 

Next day I went with Mr. W a long expedition into 

the country, which is of the Sea Island character. Much of 
the land is what is called ' old field ; ' that is, land which was 
once cultivated, but is now overgrown with wood. I am told 
that after the war many Northerners came up, expecting to 
make large fortunes by buying good land cheap m this part 
of the country, and they began by attempting high farming, 
with high-class stock and so on ; but they almost all failed 
and went back. The live-oaks and magnolias are really very 
handsome trees, large, round, and spreading. There is still a 
good deal of cotton cultivation — almost all long cotton ; short 
cotton does not answer here. It seems that short cotton 
tends to grow long here, while long cotton grows short up- 
country. The negroes cultivate it tolerably well. We saw 
one considerable planter's farm superintended, as bailiff, by 
an Englishman from Birmingham. Like most improving 
farmers in these days, he is trying to introduce better breeds 
of cattle. We came across a good many small negro farmers. 
They generally rent land, paying as much as four dollars an 
acre for it, but this is on account of the vicinity of Charier- 
ton. Further away in the country they can get it for two 
dollars an acre. It is said that the rent is very troublesome 
to collect, and that this same land is sold at eight to ten 
dollars an acre. We heard the usual tenant's complaints: 



SOUTH CAEOLINA. 329 

that though the rent is so high the proprietors do not keep 
up the house and fences, &c, as they ought. Many of the 
blacks, however, have their own houses and little patches of 
land, renting as much more as is necessary to make up a 
decent farm ; and most of them go out as labourers besides, 
more or less. I understand that in most parts of the low 
country the proprietors are willing and anxious to sell plots 
of land to the negroes, because that fixes them to the soil 
and secures a supply of labour when it is needed. I feel 
sure that this is the right policy. Here the negroes are 
generally well off, when they can get employment and are 
really paid. The difficulty seems, rather, to be to get em- 
ployment, than for employers to get hands ; but I am told 
that any man who works well and steadily, and is honest, is 
sure of employment. There is much complaint about their 
stealing chickens and such things ; otherwise they seem to be 
a good sort of people. I am again struck by the easy, laugh- 
ing familiarity between Mr. W and the blacks, and the 

free chaff which passes about the election. One disagreeable 
result, however, of the less independent character of the 
negroes in these parts, and of the electioneering which has 
been going on, is, that very many of them seem ready to 
beg for assistance in one shape or another. On the other 
hand, they are always ready to give any little assistance and 
to do odd jobs whenever they are asked to do so, and are 
perfectly content when a little tobacco is given them in 
return. They certainly seem a remarkably easily-managed, 
good-natured set of people. The next day was Sunday ; we 
went out to visit a rural chapel in the woods, and found the 
congregation in full and tremendous chorus of psalmody; 
one could hear them half a mile off. The whole thing was 
very pleasant, I thought. Afterwards we returned to Charles- 
ton, and I went to a black church in the city — rather a 
fine one. The preacher was as black as night — a typical 
negro — and perhaps a little ridiculous in his manners ; but I 
thought him a stirring and effective preacher. Every now 
and then during the sermon some of the congregation grunted 
out devout ejaculations in token of assent or by way of em- 
phasising the preacher's good points. I was greatly disap- 
pointed, however, to find that instead of the fine, bold singing 
which I had heard in the country, there was a choir and a 
poor, thin imitation of civilised singing. 



330 MY JOURNAL. 

The following day I went to see Dr. B , the United 

States postmaster, a coloured man, and said to be the best 
specimen of his class in this part of the country ; in fact, 
according to my informants, the only man appointed by 
the Republicans who is not hopelessly corrupt. lie seemed 
a dapper, pleasant, well-educated man, and reminded me of 
some of the more educated East Indians in Calcutta. He is 
quite a Northerner. He admits that the blacks have not come 
much to the front in any way, and that in commerce they do 
not keep stores or attain any considerable position, but he 
explains it all by saying that the social prejudice against 
coloured people is so great that they have not a chance. Like 
many of his class, he favours the idea of Liberia, and the 
great Black Republic that is to be there. 

I paid a visit to my namesake Mr. C , the indepen- 
dent Democrat, who stood for State Senator for this district, 
but was defeated. He is a lawyer, and all agree that he is a 
very superior man. I found him very moderate, and not at 
all inclined to be vituperative, although the election was bit- 
terly contested. He says that he represented the principle of 
Conciliation against those who would not yield anything. 
The election was won by simple cheating ; that is, by stuff- 
ing the ballot-boxes. At one polling-place not more than a 
thousand voted, but there were three thousand five hundred 
papers in the box. There was not much intimidation, but 
only cheating. 

Afterwards I went over to James Island, to see a good 
long-cotton plantation, still maintained on the high farming 

system by Mr. II . The cotton-field seemed really very 

fine ; they are highly manured, and give a large yield to the 
acre. The cost of raising it in this expensive way is, however, 
so great that it seems doubtful whether it pays very well. 
Like all who have to do with them, he speaks very w r ell of the 
blacks as labourers. He is trying experiments in raising jute, 
but does not seem to know how to grow it. At present he 
has it only in single rows, from which he hopes to get seed ; 
but it is doubtful whether that will ripen sufficiently. I spent 

the evening at Colonel T 's ; a very nice house and pleasant 

party. I had a good deal of talk with several people, among 

them Capt. D , an Englishman, who came out as a young 

man, fought in the war on the Confederate side, and is now 
editor of the principal newspaper here. They say that in this 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 331 

lower country they have always been for conciliation, and have 
supported Wade Hampton in that policy against Geary and 
the violent white party who are in the upper country. They 
point to the unopposed acceptance of Wade Hampton in the 
present election as a proof of his success. 

As a general result of all that I have been able to learn 
about the elections in this part of the country, I may say that 
there does not seem to be the least doubt that they were won 
by the most wholesale cheating. That is avowed in the most 
open way. Most people seem to praise the negroes, and to be 
on very good terms with them ; but they all admit that, while 
the blacks will do almost anything else for them, when it 
comes to voting they cannot be influenced, and insist on vot- 
ing with their party. At one place that I visited, where a con- 
siderable number of Republican votes were recorded, an old 
Democratic gentleman jocularly remarked that this had been 
the only honest poll in the whole district. They say the Re- 
publicans made the election law to suit their own purpose of 
cheating, and had arranged the electoral districts so as to 
swamp the whites with black votes. Kow they are hoist with 
their own petard, and serve them right. The blacks seem to 
have accepted their defeat as a foregone conclusion, and there- 
fore it is that they are quite good-natured over it. Perhaps, 
too, they really have "to some degree accepted Wade Hampton 
and his policy, and are not so anxious to fight as they other- 
wise might be. Both parties seem to assume as a matter of 
course that whichever controls the machinery of the elections 
will win the elections. I am told that Wade Hampton gener- 
ally appointed two Democrats and one Radical as election 
commissioners ; that the radical was always corrupt and could 
be bought, and that therefore the Democrats always had it 
their own way. The Democrats of Charleston have done 
something to conciliate those blacks who accept the Demo- 
cratic ticket. In this district seventeen members are sent up 
to the State Assembly, and of these three are Democratic 
blacks. The county officers are whites, but there are some 
blacks in the Charleston municipality. For the State Assembly 
the Republicans adopted a fusion ticket, including the five 
best of the Democrats. 

Hitherto three Congressional districts in the black part of 
South Carolina have been represented by black men, and I am 
told that they were all very fair specimens. The representa- 



332 MY JOUENAL. 

tive of the Charleston district was a well-educated negro, from 
the North. The Georgetown district was represented by an 
extremely polished black gentleman, who was formerly a very 
popular barber in Charleston, and is not at all a bad sort of per- 
son. The Beaufort district has long been represented by Gen- 
eral S , who, while a slave, was employed as a pilot, and 

in the war distinguished himself by carrying off a Confederate 
vessel and delivering her to the Federals. He has now great 
influence among his own race, and is not unpopular among 
white people. He behaved well towards his former master's 
family and assisted them. In spite, however, of this favour- 
able account, there is a general accusation that under the 
Carpet-bag Government all were corrupt, both black and 
white. Honesty was a thing unknown. 

I observe that in a great number of the elections for county 
and local offices in these Southern States the opportunity is 
taken to provide for the veterans of the Confederate army who 
are not eligible for pensions. I saw several notices of elections 
of one-legged and one-armed ex-soldiers to county offices. 
These offices are profitable — if not paid by salaries they have 
considerable fees. 

Looking over the accounts of the elections in other States, 
of which the papers are full, I observe that Governor Nicholls, 
of Louisiana, is said to be conciliatory and to have followed 
the same policy as Wade Hampton; but there the negroes 
fought more successfully than here ; and in some cases the 
Democrats carried the seats in Congress only by adopting a 
fusion ticket and giving the blacks a good many county offices. 
There seems to be more ' bulldozing' in Mississippi than any- 
where else. That is called 'the Mississippi plan.' South 
Carolina seems to be the only State which carried everything 
solidly Democratic. In all the others there has been more or 
less success of Republican or independent candidates. 

I have heard a good deal here about the late exodus to 
Liberia, which was such a wretched failure. The upper class 
of blacks do not go themselves, but preach to their countrymen 
the advantage of going. There seems no doubt that the un- 
happy people who went f ound* themselves much worse off than 
if they had stayed at home. There seems to be a much more 
promising field for emigration from Mississippi and the States 
in that part or the country to the back parts of Kansas and 
the Territories where land is to be got free. The negroes 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 333 

seem to have been less domiciled in Mississippi than they were 
here, and since emancipation they have been more migratory. 
They are now entitled to homesteads on the same terms as 
white men ; and if they can manage the means of cultivating 
virgin lands in the Far West they will do very well. 

I have been looking over some of the legislation of South 
Carolina. It does not seem very different from that which I 
have noticed in other States. There is, as usual, a good deal 
of legislation on small subjects, such as an Act to legitimise a 
child, and another to make an adopted child an heir. There 
is a regular poor law, providing for a poor-house and outdoor 
relief. Nothing is said of able-bodied paupers. The relief 
seems to be confined to really necessitous cases. The road law 
gives the option of contributing either labour or money for 
the making of roads. There is a provision for inspecting and 
classifying flour and some other things, the same as I noticed 
at Chicago, and a limit to the rates for grinding flour. There 
is a 7 per cent, usury law ; but I understand that in practice it 
is almost entirely evaded. Few people can get money here at 
7 per cent., the credit is so bad. There is a law of limited 
partnership for sleeping partners, but companies seem to be 
only incorporated by special Acts, o"f which there are many. 
There is not now in South Carolina any law prohibiting the 
intermarriage of white and black people. 

I have had a very pleasant visit to Charleston, and have 

received much kindness here. Mr. A , whom I have 

already mentioned, and who has throughout given me much 
assistance, has kindly arranged for me a visit to the country. 
I am to go to a son-in-law of his, who has an estate in the rice 
country. 

Travelling in this part of the country is sometimes very 
difficult, if one has to stop at places on the way, for there are 
seldom more than two trains, sometimes only one, in the 
course of the twenty-four hours, and they seem generally to 
manage to arrive and depart in the very middle of the night. 
However, by getting up very early I made a start from 
Charleston. The country through which we ran seemed 
mostly forest, with occasional cultivation. At Greenpond I 

was met by Mr. W , who drove me through the forest to 

his rice plantation, some miles off. After breakfast we had a 
long and pleasant ride over his land* He has a very large ex- 
tent of fine rice-fields. His farm is nearly a thousand acres, 



334 MY JOURNAL. 

and he has several neighbours who have also large plantations ; 
so altogether there is in this part of the country a rice district 

of which the cultivation is well maintained. Mr. "W has a 

very elaborate system of tidal canals for the irrigation of the 
rice. The salt water is banked out, and the fresh water is 
regulated by sluices, the land being irrigated when the tides 
rise to the necessary level. The rice seems large and fine, and 
the yield is said to be large — sometimes as much as eighty 
bushels of unhusked rice to the acre ; but the expense of the 
irrigation and other arrangements is considerable. Still they 
would do well if it were not for the competition of Indian rice 
which has been invading the American market. The planters 
keep the rice-lands in their own hands, and, beyond a little 
fodder for their mules, &c, grow little else. The higher 
grounds they give over to the negroes, who cultivate corn and 
vegetables for themselves, and a little cotton. In lieu of rent 
for the land they give two days' labour in the week, and gene- 
rally work two days more, at fifty cents a day. In most cases 
they are put upon task- work. In this part of the country the 
women seem to work as freely as the men, both in the fields 
and in the thrashing-mills. The negroes keep a large number 
of cattle and pigs ; but Mr. "W says that is a serious diffi- 
culty, as the animals increase too much, and the proprietor is 
expected to find grazing for them. The fence law is a great 
subject of dispute in this part of the country. The question 
is, whether the owner of the land is bound to fence cattle out, 
or the owner of the cattle to keep them in. Each county de- 
cides for itself, but it seems to be a burning question. Mr. 

"VV speaks extremely well of his negroes, and they appear 

to be on very good terms with him. They have quite a re- 
spectful manner, and in this out-of-the-way place the little ne- 
gro girls curtsey like English Sunday-school children. There 
has only been one strike in this neighbourhood, but that was a 
bad one. The negroes struck for more pay for harvest-work, 
and very violently drove away others who wished to work. 

Mr. W was away, and his manager could get no assistance 

from the Radical Government ; so he was obliged to yield for 
that time, but he has since come back to the old rates, and all 
has gone smoothly ; there has been no more trouble. During 
the war the people of this, part of the country suffered very 
much from the destructions of property by raiding parties from 
the Federal fleet ; and after the war, when the Federal people 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 335 

established the Radical rule, their feelings were apt to be hurt 
by their being arrested by black soldiers, and so on. However, 
they do not seem to have suffered very severely ; and now, if 
money were only more plentiful, and there was a better de- 
mand for their produce, they would do very well. 

Talking of these arrests, I may mention that arrest means 
very little in the United States. Under their old-fashioned 
English laws every process, criminal or civil, is commenced 
by arrest, followed by bail. De Tocqueville instances this as 
showing how an English law favourable to the rich, who can 
give bail, has prevailed even under Democratic institutions. 

Mr. W has laid out a good deal of land in lots, which he 

offers to the negroes for sale. Some of them have bought, but 
most have not the means. He, like others, speaks of their im- 
morality and want of fidelity to their spouses. They are relig- 
ious in their way, but have their own peculiar ideas of religion, 
and do not appreciate some of our theology. 

In this lower country, so much peopled by blacks, who can 
stand the climate, the whites are generally obliged to go away 
from the plantations, in the hot weather to healthier places. 
In slave days the white overseers were a bad set, and little ed- 
ucated. They had no accounts, there being no money to pay, 

and they were mere slave-drivers. Xow Mr. W has two 

or three educated young men under him, and they take it turn 
and turn about to stay during the unhealthy season. He has 
also some property up-country, and he says that the blacks 
there are more intelligent, speak better English, and often 
make good farmers. On the other hand, the low country 
people are more simple and more easily managed ; and it is a 
great advantage that the women work here. 

There is plenty of game about here. Mr. "W gave me 

venison of his own shooting. These Southerners habitually 
eat sweet potatoes, and hominy made of Indian corn. One 
sees very little of potatoes proper, called * Irish potatoes.' 

I enjoyed this visit very much ; and the impression left 
upon my mind is, that the relations between a planter and the 
negroes upon lus property may well be pleasant and satisfac- 
tory. A little more money and profit only is needed to make 
things go along very satisfactorily. 

The following day Mr. W drove me to Kusaw, en 

route for Beaufort. All this is quite a negro countiy. There 
never were many whites ; and after leaving the rice planta- 



330 MY JOURNAL. 

tions we find that most of the planters have disappeared since 
the war and the decadence of long cotton. We saw nothing 
but scattered negro huts. The negroes seem now never to 
live in villages ; they have left the old slave lines and set up 
isolated houses on their farms. At the meeting of cross-roads 
you may find small stores, generally kept by Germans. 

At Kusaw we went over the Phosphate Company's works. 
They seem to be very active and energetic. The material 
(composed of animal fossils) is dredged or dived for in the 
river, and is then cleaned and crushed and prepared for ex- 
port. All the labour is black. I talked to Mr. C , the son 

of the former proprietor of all the land about here, and now a 
manager of the Phosphate Company. He speaks very highly 
indeed of the free negro labour, and I myself saw the negroes 
working as well as any men in the world can work. Evi- 
dently these people are not wanting in physical capacity, and 

make excellent hired labourers. Mr. C says he has tried 

Irishmen, but he found them no better workmen than negroes, 
and very troublesome, so he got rid of them. The blacks, 
however, only do the manual labor ; they are not what is 
called ' responsible,' and not to be trusted with machines or 
anything of that kind. There are, however, some good black 
carpenters and blacksmiths. Most of these black labourers 
have land of their own over on the Islands. After doing their 
ploughing and sowing they leave the women and children to 
hoe and weed and come over here. They get a dollar a day, 
and some of the better men a dollar and a quarter, but they 
seldom save. After they have made a little money they like 
to go and spend it. They drink, but not to such a degree as 
to interfere with their work. They go home and get drunk 
on Saturday night, go to church on Sunday, and generally are 
back at their work on Monday. He has had only one small 
strike. The men stayed away on the Saturday, but came 
back on the Monday. He carried on his work all through 
the Radical rule, but has had no trouble on account of po- 
litical difficulties. He could always get on with the black la- 
bourers. All that the negroes require is to get their wages 
regularly paid in cash. On the day of the election they would 
not stay at work. They all went off to vote at Greenpond, 
which was the regular polling-place ; but when they got 
there, fifteen miles off, they were told that there would be 
no poll. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 337 

I was kindly sent on to Beaufort in the Phosphate Com- 
pany's little steamer, which took me through the river-chan- 
nels. The appearance of this flat country, in which land and 
water are a good deal intermixed, reminded me very much of 
the lower parts of Bengal — the tall pine-trees take the place 
of the Bengal palms, looking in the distance not unlike them. 
The Sea Islands are situated very like the ' Soonderbun ' 
tracts. Two large islands lie between Kusaw and Beaufort, 
and we threaded through the channels separating them. Be- 
fore the war these islands were filled with large plantations of 
Sea Island cotton ; and here, too, after the war, Northerners 
came and spent much money, but were disappointed ; so the 
land is now entirely given up to the negroes. 

The steamer landed me at Beaufort. It is a remarkably 
nice-looking place, with good hotels and many comforts. I 
went to the Sea Island Hotel, and was comfortable there. 
The town seems very pleasant and cheerful, with no signs 
whatever of the tyranny of black rule. It is one of the 
oldest settlements in America. When it was the centre of a 
slave population it was used as a summer residence by the 
neighbouring planters, who had nice houses here. These 
planters are described as having been very good gentleman- 
farmers ; they were well educated, and were especially fond 
of good libraries. In the early part of the war Beaufort was 
occupied by Federal troops, and many negroes congregated 
under their protection. Several of the black regiments which 
were raised by the Federals were stationed here. Being so 
occupied, the place escaped destruction and plunder, and 
that is why it is so well preserved. It now seems pretty pros- 
perous, with good stores, cotton-ginning mills, phosphate 
dealers, and so on ; but the old race of planters is gone or 
dispersed. Many of the houses are occupied by then- widows 
and daughters, in a sadly impoverished condition. A good 
deal of long cotton comes in, grown in a small way by 
negroes, but nothing like what there was before. The great 
majority of the population of the town, and almost all the 
population of the surrounding country, are black ; so that the 
Democrats have found it impossible to wrest this one county 
from the Radicals, who. still elect the county officers and send 
members to the State Assembly ; but the Democrats have 
succeeded in conquering the Congressional district. The 
houses are surrounded by orange trees and pleasant vegeta- 
22 



338 • MY JOTJKNAL. 

tion, but they are not so well painted and neat as they used 
to be. Many of tliem were sold for arrears of taxes ; and a 
good many of the smaller ones are occupied by blacks, who 
have thus much better quarters than they usually have. 
Some land in the neighbourhood is still owned by whites, 
but most of it by blacks, who purchased it after the tax sales. 
Everything seems in order ; there is no squatting without 
title, but some of the titles are incomplete, the instalments 
of purchase-money not having been made good. The blacks 
cannot have a better chance than they have here, and I am 
very anxious to know how they are getting on. 

A very fair and moderate medical man, Dr. S , has 

kindly taken me a drive about the place and told me much. 
He was in the Confederate army, lost everything in the war, 
and with difficulty borrowed money to buy back, at a cheap 
price, his own house, which had been sold up ; but he re- 
covered his profession, and now he speaks very kindly of the 
blacks, and gives a very favourable account of the state of 
things on the whole. The people who survived the war seem 
to have got on well enough. There has been no serious 
trouble or disturbance except at election times; and the 
worst outrage of which I heard was that an impudent black 

woman made a lady take the wall in passing. Dr. S 

drove me out among the negro farms in the neighbourhood 
of the town. They are generally ten and twenty acre lots ; but 
the soil here is very sandy and light, and scarcely bears any 
other crops than cotton and sweet potatoes. It needs manure, 
of which it does not get much. Some of the patches seemed 
tolerably well farmed, but most indifferently; and, as most 
of the people near the town depend much upon the work they 
get as hired labourers, these were hardly a fair specimen. 
A little further off, where the soil is better, and the negroes 
must depend more upon agriculture, I am told that they do 
better. We talked to some of the small black farmers, and 
a good deal to a well-spoken black woman, the wife of 
one of the best of them. She keeps poultry, and makes 
a profit by that. They have no children of their own, but 
keep three, whom they have apparently adopted. On the 
other hand, Dr. S — — says he believes that the blacks now 
have fewer children than the whites, and often do not want 
to have children. They think it a useless trouble. A day or 
two ago a black woman said as much to me, adding, ' I know 



SOUTH CxiROLINA. 339 

when I grow old they won't take care of me.' Dr. S- 



saySj as others say, that their connubial morality is very loose 
indeed. In other respects he speaks well of them. Times 
are bad for all, and they can just get along ; they have no 
money to spare to increase and improve their farms. X o doubt 
most of them are improvident. They drink a good deal, but 
not enough to incapacitate them for work or to create any 
serious scandal. 

I asked how the people of Beaufort were situated as re- 
gards the black domination in the Government during Carpet- 
bag rule ; but they do not seem to have suffered much from 
that. The judges have generally been white, and some of 
them decent men. Some white men were allowed to be on the 
juries, and of the county officers and justices of the peace 
some were black and some white. The Mayor of the town, or 
' Intendant,' as he is called, is a white man, and so are some 
of the Aldermen, but the majority of the latter are black. 
There are no black militia here ; the blacks have not got up a 
company, but there is a white company. In truth the whites 
never have been much oppressed, except that they felt that 
they were living under a corrupt Government — the taxes were 
heavy and the State debt increased. The blacks now feel that 
AVade Hampton has relieved them of much taxation ; only 
more money is wanted to improve the situation. I asked if, 
with the advantages they have had in this part of the country, 
many of the blacks have raised themselves in the world. He 
says there is a kind of black aristocracy here ; but when I 
inquire who they are it seems to consist chiefly of officials and 
two or three coloured lawyers in criminal practice. No black 
men have become merchants, or considerable storekeepers. 
There is only one very small store in the town kept by a 
black, and even the small stores in the country are kept by 
German Jews and suchlike people. Before the war the blacks 
had one or two decent tailor's shops in a small way, and there 
are still such shops; also a small harness-maker; and there 
are some good carpenters and other tradesmen, some of whom 
will undertake small contracts. The blacks own most of the 
liack carriages. All their preachers are black, but no medical 
men. One Xorthern coloured man came and tried to practise 
as a doctor, but he was very extortionate, and distrusted by 
his own race, and he went away. 

In the evening, talking to some of the people in the hotel 



340 MY JOURNAL. 

about my future plans, I found that they thought Florida was 
the place for a tourist to go to. That is a great resort for peo- 
ple in search of a good climate in the winter. Jacksonville 
and other places on the St. John's River are described as very 
charming, with a beautiful climate and a great cultivation of 
oranges. The scenery is said to be quite tropical. I have 
come to America for things more utilitarian than tropical 
scenery, and my plans will not admit of my going to Florida, 
even though I hear that in some parts of the State there are 
some very good black settlements upon the land. 

Next day I went again about the town of Beaufort. I 

made the acquaintance of a Mr. B , a coloured lawyer, 

who came up here from New York. He seems a very amus- 
ing person, and has the English nomenclature very ready. 
He says there are here about six white and six coloured 
lawyers, the latter principally confined to criminal practice. He 
complains of the quality of the justice administered. Things 
have been in one extreme or the other. At one time most of 
the jurors were blacks, now there are hardly blacks enough 
upon the juries. He showed me round the town, and pointed 
out all the good and large houses belonging to whites, the 
small and inferior ones to blacks. After all, he says, ' intellect 
will tell.' I visited the coloured school, which seemed to be 
doing pretty well. The master of one class claims to be a 
reduced planter who was rich in his time. However, most of 
the whites in these parts seem to have been rich planters and 
still to be generals. They say that in old times the imported 
slaves generally claimed to have been kings in Africa. In the 
school besides the planter there was a very nice young New 
England lady and two female coloured teachers, all doing their 
best ; but the school has only just reopened after a vacation of 
some seven months. The New England mistress says that 
black children do well, but they are not so regular in attend- 
ance as Northern children. 

I called on Colonel E , a lawyer, and one of the prin- 
cipal residents, to whom the Governor had given me an intro- 
duction. He says the blacks in this neighbourhood are doing 
pretty well, but they sell their cotton improvidently below its 
value and buy grist when they might raise and grind it them- 
selves. The best specimen, however, of successful black set- 
tlement is, he says, in St. Helen's Island, on the other side of 
the river, where they have their own lots, and have had a 



SOUTH CAEOLINA. 341 

good deal of education given them by the Northerners, as well 
as some good example. There, he thinks, they are improv- 
ing, getting tidier houses, and altogether rising in the world. 
He admits that the black members of Congress from this State 
are pretty decent men, but says those now elected by this 
county for the State Assembly are very bad. lie admits that 
the blacks have generally conducted themselves very well 
under the circumstances of recent years ; and now that the 
whites have got the control of the Legislature he seems pretty 
well satisfied. He spoke of the riot on the rice plantations to 
which I have before alluded, and says that it certainly was a 
serious riot, but was to a great degree attributable to unfair 
dealings with the labourers, and paying them by cheque in- 
stead of cash. They are now behaving extremely well. He 
takes, altogether, a favourable view of the situation. He is 
said to represent Mr. Wade Hampton's views and policy. 
Others, however, express doubt whether there is much real 
and sincere disposition to conciliate in the Governor's party. 

I also made the acquaintance of General S , the negro 

Congressman for this district, who has just been ousted in the 
recent election, or rather will be ousted in consequence, for 
the American arrangement in this respect is very peculiar. 
In the session following the elections the old members Avill 
still sit till March ; and unless there is an extraordinary ses- 
sion the new members will not take their seats till a year 
hence. General S is the hero who carried off the gun- 
boat Planter from the Confederates. He is a robust, burly, 
dark man, now in the prime of life, and very popular with 
the blacks. After the war he became a General of the Na- 
tional Guards, a Congressman, and a considerable person. He 
attributes the loss of the present election entirely to fraud and 
intimidation. He denies that any considerable number of 
blacks went over to the enemy. In these lower districts there 
was not much actual violence at the time of the poll, but there 
had been intimidation and serious obstruction to his canvass 
and his meetings before the election. The Republicans, he says, 
have an enormous majority in this and the adjoining districts, 
if they only got fair play. Now, the Democrats have elected 
the bitterest of their party ; there has rarely been any com- 
promise. They are sending two or three black Democrats to 
the State Legislature from the Charleston district ; but that is 
quite an exception. As to the remedy for the frauds which 



342 MY JOUKNAL. 

liave deprived him of liis seat he says he might lodge a petL 
tion in Congress ; bnt, if he does, he must bear all the expense 
of the petition and the witnesses to support his case, and then 
he would not have a chance as long as the Democrats have the 
majority in Congress. He does not seem to be supported by 
any party organisation in or out of the State. He takes a 
favourable view of the condition of the coloured people, and 
is against Liberia. Though they have been so unfairly treated 
in the elections, they are the best-natured people in the world, 
and bear no malice. He complains very much of the want of 
justice. There were eight hundred political murders com- 
mitted by the Ku-klux and other Democratic organisations, 
but not a single white has been hanged nor a single one sent 
to the Penitentiary by the States Courts — only a few impris- 
oned by the United States Courts. He attributes the diffi- 
culty to the rule requiring unanimity of the jury, which still 
prevails. The whites, he says, have sworn to their clubs 
never to convict. As long as there is one of them on the 
jury they never will. The United States Chief Justice tried 
one case which was as clear as daylight, and he expressed 
himself as dreadfully disgusted that the jury would not con- 
vict. General S admits that there was very much abuse 

during the eight years of Radical rule in this State. They 
were led astray by bad men. He declares, however, that the 
black members now sent to the State Assembly from this 
county are good men ; two of them are well educated, and 
the third, though illiterate, is a good Christian farmer. I 

like what I have seen of General S . 

Next day I spent in an expedition to Ladies' and St. 
Helen's Sea Islands, to see the negroes settled there as farm- 
ers, and was very much pleased with what I saw. I went with 

General S , the Congressman, who kindly chaperoned 

me, and put me in the way of seeing the people. These 
islands are so far islands that they are surrounded by water- 
channels. They have good soil and plenty of fresh water. 
Most of the land was sold for taxes and bought by the blacks, 
and a good deal of what remained as private property of the 
white planters is being gradually disposed of to these same 
blacks, as the owners here are very happy to sell it to them 
— so that now they own the greater part of the islands, and 
rent what remains, with little exception. They have thus no 
planter rivals. The whites now on these islands are Northern 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 3-13 

people, who fulfil functions which the blacks cannot yet un- 
dertake. Some white merchants grow and buy their cotton, 
and others keep the stores necessary to supply their necessi- 
ties. The better class of schools are maintained by Northern 

and English ladies. General S seems to be on very 

popular and pleasant terms with the people. They all salute 
him heartily, and ask him all kinds of questions, and he has 
always something to say to them. On one of the islands this 
was a kind of fete day — the Baptist Preacher's Convention 
was being held, and the people attended in large numbers, 
the women especially, in their best clothes. The whole scene 
was very pleasing and cheerful. In the Convention everything 
was entirely managed by the black people themselves, as much 
as if no whites existed on this continent. The preachers ob- 
served much parliamentary form, but the Court was appa- 
rently an open one — the black ladies sat round and assisted. 
These country people seem to have many carts and nice 
ponies. Their houses are tolerable, and altogether they 
seem to be comfortable. The farms seem fairly cultivated, 
especially the cotton crop. The houses have all been built 
since the war, and some of them show signs of decided 
improvement. 

I visited Miss T , the head of the ^Northern schools 

which I have mentioned. She is a lady of independent pro- 
perty, who has devoted herself to this work. I had a good 
deal of talk with her. She gives a very favourable account 
of the negroes, and says they are generally out of debt. The 
system of advances which at one time prevailed has now 
ceased, and all their transactions are for cash. They even 
pay in advance for any land that they rent. She lets out 
some land herself, and finds that they pay punctually in this 
way. Many of them to her knowledge are saving money 
and buying farms for their sons. They are especially anxious 
to set up their sons in this way. She and others with whom I 
have talked in these islands decidedly differ from the accounts 
I had heard elsewhere, and say that the blacks as a class are 
kind to one another and generally ready to assist relations 
and friends in distress ; but it is admitted that they are still 
very loose in their connubial relations, that being a relic of 

slave" times, when marriage was not regarded. Miss T 

says that the blacks are temperate. Their children rather look 
down upon those among them who have any white blood, and 



344 MY JOURNAL. 

point at them as ' Secesh :' that is, secession people. The 
people sell their cotton, and eat sweet potatoes, corn, and 
bacon, importing some of these things. I had a good deal 
of conversation with Mr. N" , the principal cotton mer- 
chant in the Islands, and with one or two storekeepers. Their 
accounts very much tally with that which I have already 
stated. Merchants and ginners look a good deal after the 
quality of the seed, and distribute it among the small farmers, 
in order that the plant may not deteriorate. The cotton cul- 
ture gives the people employment for most of the year, and 
after the crop is gathered the women have much employment 
in the ginning factories. The long cotton requires much 
more handling than does the short. The people are very 
regular and good as regards their dealings at the stores. 
Besides the superior education given by the Northern ladies, 
State schools are kept up, but for want of funds are not very 
efficient, and sometimes are scarcely open more than two 
months in the year ; but the people do a good deal for them- 
selves in this way, and are getting on very well. 

I was amused to see the way in which the women fell upon 

General S on the question of the title to their lands, in 

which a flaw had been alleged, which has much alarmed them. 
They demanded assurances that they should not be turned 
out. As to politics the blacks seem very ignorant, but very 
hearty upon the Republican side. People here deny that 
there is much drinking among them ; in fact, until recently 
there was no whisky-shop at all upon the Islands. The black 
preachers seem to be a sort of Christian Brahmins among 
them, but still they are very democratic in their arrange- 
ments. The people like to have a large voice in all their 
religious affairs. These preachers, as I saw them gathered 
together to-day, are rather a funny-looking set, with their 
black faces and white ties, but they seem hearty and pleasant. 
They have often other trades besides preaching. General 
S pointed out one of them who is a first-rate wheelwright. 

Altogether I have much enjoyed seeing this example of a 
negro 'Kyotwar' community, who, having had a fair chance, 
are really doing very well. Originally these people were 
among the lowest, most ignorant, and most enslaved class of 
negroes ; and they have gone through political convulsions 
and excitements which might well have unsettled any people ; 
yet they are now quite settled down. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 345 

I still like General S on further acquaintance. He 

is not very highly educated or brilliant, but is a thoroughly 
representative man among these people, and seems to have 
their unlimited confidence. He complains that the present 
Government has taken away the arms frorn the Rational 
Guards, of which there were two regiments in these Islands. 
They were disbanded, and only the volunteer militia com- 
panies remain. Of these only in Charleston is there a black 

company. Colonel E , however, does not admit this 

statement. He says the Rational Guards were fairly treated, 
and every chance was given to them to become efficient. 
They were only disbanded because they were hopelessly in- 
efficient. The Government gives arms to the volunteer 
companies, but they must pass muster as efficient and prop- 
erly clothed. General S , on the other hand, says that 

the white volunteer rifle companies are really political clubs, 
and that they are constantly brought together by their own 
will for political purposes. In one place where he had a 
political meeting he and his friends were fired at ; and this 
statement seems to be confirmed by a white man of the 
other party whom we met at the hotel on our return. He 
talked with much gusto of the way in which the buckshot had 
crashed through a heap of apples upon that occasion. The 
blacks have also their clubs, but they are not of a military or 
political character : they are more of the nature of friendly 
societies for the support of the sick, and burial clubs. They 
all attach great importance to burial. These clubs are Aery 
much under the management of the preachers. General 
S showed me one reverend gentleman who, he said, dur- 
ing the election canvass was hauled up with a rope about his 
neck, and barely escaped with his life. 

I paid several visits before leaving the place. IVIr. G , 

a Northern man, who deals in land, says that the negroes are 
certainly buying land ; he has had many transactions with 

them himself. Dr. S and Colonel E excuse the 

present extreme to which the Democratic party have carried 
their triumph in the elections by showing how willing they 
were to compromise ; but, they say, the Radicals would not 
compromise. 

There are decided mosquitoes in these parts ; not very 
serious at this season, but so much so as to make mosquito- 
curtains necessary. After a successful visit to Beaufort I 



346 MY JOURNAL. 

started in the evening for Georgia, and, after passing through 
some lagoons and heavy wood, travelled far inland through 
the night, leaving the coast districts behind me. 



GEORGIA. 

At daylight in the morning we were passing through a 
fiattish country, with much cotton cultivation, and soon after- 
wards we reached Augusta, in Georgia. Augusta is hand- 
somely laid out, with broad boulevards and houses surrounded 
by beautiful shrubs and trees. It must be charming in fine 
weather ; but to-day, for the first time during my tour, it is 
raining heavily, and I had an opportunity of appreciating 
fhe mud of an unpaved American town. I am told, too, that 
before the rain the place was very dusty. This is a great 
cotton mart — the centre of a large cotton-growing country. 
The only complaint is, that the farmers grow cotton too ex- 
clusively, and do not rotate enough, or grow food enough for 
themselves, but have to buy largely from the West. Augusta 
is on the River Savannah, which gives an immense water- 
power, the fall being rapid, the stream strong, and the supply 
constant and unfailing. Advantage has been taken of this to 
establish great cotton-mills, which are doing a large and pros- 
perous business. The stock of the mills is at a premium. At 
a very large mill which I visited they make only coarse un- 
bleached goods, using only very low numbers of yarn ; but at 
another mill close by they make finer goods, the yarns used 
being, I was told, about No. 22. It is said that, while in other 
parts of the States millowners are losing, these Southern mills 
make large profits. Three-fourths of the goods go to New 
York, as the commercial emporium. The labour employed is 
entirely white, and is upon what they call the ' family system,' 
which is much the same as the English system, as opposed to 
the New England practice, where the mill-girls live- in great 
barracks. Here they have workmen's houses near the mills, 
much like what one sees in England. The manager says that 
the people work quite as well as Northern mill- workers of 
whom he has had experience. There are good schools in the 
town, and most of the people are now fairly educated ; but 
there is no compulsory school law, direct or indirect, and no 
restriction as regards the work of children. The women earn 



GEORGIA. 347 

from 83 to j>5 a week, fifty cents a clay being the wages for 
common hands, They are very regular and well-behaved. 

Some men work well too. but they are not so good as the 
women. They work eleven hours a day. By the way. I may 
mention that I have met some people who speak rather in a 
depreciatory way of the morals of the charming young ladies 
who do the mill-work in Kew England factories ; but I have 
not visited these latter, and cannot say whether this is a libel. 
So blacks are employed in the mills here. The manager says 
they are nut "responsible.* He has not tried them — perhaps 
they might do well enough under superintendence. Before 
the war there were. I understand, several small mills success- 
fully worked by slaves. It would not be possible to work 
black and white women together. The white women would 
not submit to it : they are far more intolerant than the men. 

I made the acquaintance of a gentleman in the iron- 
mongery trade. Mi*. D . who gave me much assistance. 

He says he has a good many English goods. ZVo one can 
rival the English in cutlery and some other things, but the 
larger machinery is made best in America. I was also intro- 
duced to Mr. N . a Charleston man. settled here as a 

cotton-buyer. He seems to think that the negroes have hardly 
so good a chance in Georgia as in South Carolina. They are 
the majority of the population about here, and most of the 
cotfc >n is raised by their labour — principally on shares and 
cotton-rents — but it is not a very satisfactory- svstem. The 
farming is poorly dune, and the negroes are apt to change 
about a good deal. There are a good many Irish in these 
parts, especially in the upper parts of the country : but they 
are mostly rather a low type — people who come up from the 
Kbrth in search of work. They are employed on the streets 
and ditches of the town, and to a considerable extent on the 
railways : but the white men do not work better than the 
blacks, and get just the same pay. This is confirmed by gentle- 
men who have charge of railways and have had experience of 
both classes of workmen. The climate of Augusta is hot in 

summer, but mild in winter. Mr. X took me for a drive 

to Somerville. an elevated spot, with very pretty houses, and 
where the climate is very good. Aikin, which I have already 
mentioned, is a similar place, not very far distant. "We saw 
some cotton grown by white planters near the town, and had 
some talk with them. The fields we saw were very produc- 



348 . my jouena£. 

tive : the yield would be about a bale an acre. They sa} r the 
cotton sometimes suffers from drought ; but they have this 
advantage in this climate, that if the first bloom is lost they 
get a large second bloom later in the season, and that is the 
case this year. The most productive cotton-lands are in Cen- 
tral and South-west Georgia — principally the Hatter lands, 
where the rivers run out from the higher country. They say, 
however, that the farther north and the higher up cotton can 
be made to grow, with the aid of stimulant manures, the better 
its quality is. Most of the whites in this State own land. 
The poorer whites are generally either in the upper country 
or in the poorer parts of the low country. 

People here will not admit wdiat I had been told else- 
where, that, compared to other Southern States, Georgia is 
prosperous. Things, they say, are in a bad way, and property 
has much depreciated. They admit, however, that things are 
better than they were ; but there is still great complaint of 
want of money, in consequence of which the rate of interest 
is excessive. They say that responsible men with much 
property have had to give 2 per cent, per month for loans, 
and have still to pay 8 or 10 per cent, per annum. 

From Augusta I travelled to Atlanta, the present political 
capital of Georgia. The first part of the line went for a long 
way through a little cultivated country, abounding in pines 
and scrub-oaks, the cultivation being only occasional and 
rather poor. This somewhat surprised me after what I had 
heard of the quantity of cotton grown in this country, but it 
illustrates what I had before been^ several times told, viz., 
that the railways very generally run along the ridges, and 
that thus in travelling by railway one sees the least favour- 
able specimens of country. Thirty or forty miles out of 
Augusta, however, cotton became very abundant, growing on 
undulating ground. All the way on to Atlanta the country 
was a good deal undulated and varied, with a good deal of 
wood. This seems the general character of the greater part 
of these Southern States ; and after all but a fraction of the 
whole country is cultivated. As we got on we came to a dis- 
trict considerably elevated, about Barnet and Crawfordsville, 
and I noticed that in this fine healthy-looking country there 
was a considerable white population. A large proportion of 
the cottages we passed here seemed to be inhabited by whites. 
These cottages generally are very miserable-looking dwell- 



GEORGIA. 349 

ings, according to our ideas, but they seemed to be full of 
healthy children. There are a good many blacks also. I un- 
derstand that in the country we have been passing through 
the population is about equally divided between blacks and 
whites. To the south of this line are the great cotton-pro- 
ducing districts, where the black population prevails ; but to 
the north, again, where the country rises considerably, there 
is a portion of Georgia which is quite a white man's country, 
and now contains a large white population. There are, I 
understand, flourishing places there, such as Athens and 
Gainsville ; and quite recently that country has been im- 
mensely opened out by a new line of railway running from 
Salisbury, in North Carolina, to Atlanta, through the higher 
tracts. That country seems to have been exceedingly isolated 
before it was penetrated by railways. They say that the 
tobacco produced there after being packed in hogsheads was 
literally rolled down to Augusta and other civilised places, 
not so very long ago. I noticed many cattle as we passed 
along, but they did not seem to be in very good condition. I 
am told that they are rather a poor breed, and do not give 
much milk ; and I can testify that they eat tough ; but great 
efforts are now being made to improve them. 

I made the acquaintance in the train of Mr. Stephens, a 
Senator of this State, going up to the Legislature, Avhich is 
now in session, and had a good deal of talk with him. He 
is a nephew of the well-known Alexander Stephens, the Vice- 
President and brains of the Confederacy, who is himself a 
Georgian, from this part of the country. His accounts of the 
country and people tally pretty well with what I have before 
heard. He repeats and emphasises the complaint about 
scarcity of money. The State, he says, is very far from pros- 
perous, and in consequence the fields, very many of which 
are a good deal exhausted from long cotton cultivation, are 
not sufficiently manured nor cultivated so well as they should 
be. He says that comparatively few blacks own land ; they 
do not save money to buy it. On the contrary, they are 
generally obliged to get advances to carry them through the 
season in the cultivation of their small farms. By law the 
proprietor has a lien on the crops for his rent and advances ; 
and when the accounts are settled at the end of the season 
the black farmers are often behind and have nothing to get ; 
and then next year they either go on in the same way or 



350 MY JOURNAL. 

go off somewhere else. -I have since, however, met men who 
declare that they have kept their old slaves on their land, 
except, perhaps, that just at first most of them may have 
gone off for a year or two to prove their independence, 
and then returned and settled down. The common rent is 
two bales of cotton — that is, about 900 lbs. for as much 
land as a mule can work. The whites in this part of the 
country generally have land of their own, and work fairly 
well. [Near Mr. Stephens' there is an old settlement of 
Catholic Irish, who are now good farmers. The cattle do not 
suffer from want of grass ; there is plenty of it ; and Mr. 
Stephens does not doubt that the breed will be improved. He 
explained to me about the grass which is prevalent here 
what interested me much, namely, that it is really the East 
Indian grass known in that country as ' Dhdop grass ; ' that is, 
sun-grass. I had already noticed in the Southern States that 
the grass reminded me very much of what I had seen in 
India, and it seems there is no doubt that it is an importation. 
It was introduced from India into the Bermudas, and from 
Bermuda into the States, whence it is called -Bermuda grass. 
It is considered to be first-rate fodder, and is only too 
plentiful ; that is to say, it is not easily kept out of the culti- 
vated fields. It does not injure wheat, as it is kept down 
b}^ the cold until the wheat is up ; but the cotton being sown 
later, it is very troublesome to that crop, and necessitates 
much weeding. At first, when it spread over the country, 
as it did very rapidly, it created quite a panic, and much 
depreciated the value of the cotton-lands, but now people 
have discovered that it is so good a grass that they are glad to 
have it. 

I asked Mr. Stephens about Georgian politics. He says 
that after the war for a time they were allowed to manage 
their own affairs ; then the Constitution of 1868 was forced 
upon them by the Federal Government, and for a short period 
the Republicans were in power in the State, but apparently by 
no means an irreconcilable Republican party. The Governor 
of those days was a Northern man, who had been settled in 
Georgia before the war, was ' a good rebel ' during the war, 
and generally liked. In 1870 the Democrats again got the 
majority, and kept it — so much so that they have now almost 
everything throughout the State. There are now only two 
blacks and five or six Republicans in the Legislature, but 



GffiOKGIA. 351 

there are many Independent Democrats. He talks as if the 
blacks are not politically irreconcilable, as in Sonth Carolina, 
but amenable to influence and money ; they can be managed 
well enough, if only a little money is available. The Indepen- 
dents have not established a separate policy ; they have only 
stood in opposition to the Caucus system of the party. He 

showed me a speech of Dr. F , one of the Independents 

just elected to Congress, setting forth the principles upon 

which he stood as being distinctly Democratic. Dr. F , 

however, seems to be decidedly ' greenbacky.' He is very 
strong in favour of silver, but he is also for a ' sufficient, but 
not excessive paper issue,' so as to bring up values and save 
debtors. I suspect the Independents in these parts are certainly 
in the main Greenbackers. Apparently they have generally 
got the Republican vote. One Independent is, however, de- 
scribed as a ' Bourbon Democrat.' Bourbons are the high- 
handed party, who would like to act as the Bourbons did. 
Mr. Alexander Stephens still lives, in poor health, as has 
always been the case, but his intellect is as bright as ever, and 
he is a member of Congress for the district of Georgia in which 
he resides. He is, in fact, practically an Independent, though 
he accepted the Caucus nomination. He is now entirely for a 
moderate and conciliatory policy. He is also very strong for 
silver, and would have both an unlimited coinage of that metal 
and the issue of silver certificates. 

I am told by some people that a strong repudiation feeling 
is growing up both in the South and in some parts of the 
North. By the Constitution of the United- States, States can- 
not repudiate their -debts, but they can refuse to make any 
appropriation to pay the interest. 

Georgia has just had a new Constitution, with a good 
many changes, and the present Assembly has recently met for 
the first time under this new Constitution. Mr. Stephens 
says, however, that the changes are not of an important poli- 
tical character. I aked him about the homestead law protect- 
ing the debtor, and he gave me an account which interested 
me much. Under the old law of this State the homestead up 
to fifty acres of land, with the necessary implements and pro- 
visions, were absolutely protected from execution for debt, and 
the right could not be waived ; so that no mortgage or any- 
thing else took away this privilege. Under the Constitution 
of 1868 the homestead privilege was extended to the value of 



352 MY JOURNAL. 

$2,000 realty or $1,000 personalty. It was hoped in this way 
to save the indebted Georgians from their "creditors, but the 
Supreme Court of the United States declared that this pro- 
vision was contrary to the United States Constitution so far as 
it purported to have retroactive effect ; and so the Georgians, 
finding that it had no effect to save them from past debts, and 
took away their credit for the future, have reduced the amount 
under the recent changes. The right can now be waived, and 
so small proprietors are enabled to mortgage their property 
and raise money upon it. 

Atlanta is in an elevated region, about 1,100 ft. above the 
sea. It is now a great railway centre and a prosperous place ; 
but, as I am to remain here some days, I am disappointed to 
find that it is not at all a pretty or nice town ; very inferior 
in amenities to all the other Southern towns I have seen. It 
is, in fact, anew brick-built town ; with no trees in the streets, 
but abundant mud, for there is now a good deal of rain. As 
in all American towns, there are some nice enough villa 
suburbs, but there is no river or open ground near. The 
principal hotel, the Kimball, is crammed full, and I had diffi- 
culty in getting in. It is a fine large establishment, with a 
great hall in the centre, which is immensely crowded. I have 
here realised for the first time what American spitting is. It 
really requires some nerve to walk across the hall. This is 
about the busiest season of the year for the cotton traffic and 
mercantile business generally, besides that the Legislature is 
in session. I understand that the climate of this elevated 
region is very good. At present, on account of clouds and 
rain, it is rather warm and muggy for the season of the year. 

The next day I went to the Houses of Legislature in the 
Capitol, and was very civilly treated. I was voted the floor of 
both Houses. Access to the floor seems to be pretty free to a 
good many people, to say nothing of the ample galleries, 
where there were on this occasion but few spectators. I spent 
most of my time to-day in the Senate, which is comparatively 
a small body ; but I looked into the Assembly also. The de- 
bates seemed to be of an ordinary, commonplace character. 
In the early part of the session a good deal of the business is 
formal, very many of the bills being brought in, read a first 
and second time, without much debate, and referred to com- 
mittees. Evidently all the forms of these American Legisla- 
tures were originally derived from our Parliament. They 



GEORGIA. 353 

have, however, much need of brevity, for in this State the 
Legislature sits biennially, and is limited to a session of forty 
days unless it is continued by a two-thirds vote. They conse- 
quently from time to time limit the speakers by a vote of the 
House ; generally the limit is ten minutes in the Assembly and 
half an hour in the Senate ; but often by a simple vote it is 
reduced to live minutes or extended. Then they have and fre- 
quently use ' the previous question,' or cloture. They certainly 
get through a great deal of business — far more, I am told, than 
does Congress. It seems to be tolerably well done, though 
sometimes rather hastily. About half the Senate and one- 
third of the Assembly or House are lawyers, and very many 
of them are ambitious of drawing bills, so there is no difficulty 
on that score. At present there are no regular parties, the 
Democrats having it all their own way. Evidently, however, 
the Independents are very largely represented ; in the late 
elections they have got nearly half of the seats in Congress 
for Georgia. They are not united in any pronounced policy 
as regards the blacks, but lay themselves out for black votes, 
and there is thus a division with regard to the blacks which 
has a wholesome effect. I liked the style of the men I saw. 
Many of the Senate appeared to be superior men, and the 
representatives in the Assembly seem to be a decent-looking 
set — only an exceptional man here and there had his legs on 
the table. I am told that nearly every man in the Senate is 
a speaker. The Americans certainly go in for oratory more 
than we do. Their style is peculiar. They have a way of 
emphasising the last word of every sentence and the last 
sentence of every subject. However, on every-day subjects 
the speakers I heard bringing on motions or discussing them 
seemed to be reasonably brief and not excessively loud. The 
halls are large, and the acoustics p not very good ; so that, 
besides not being accustomed to our quiet English ways, it 
would be difficult for a man to make himself heard, amid the 
buzz of a good many people moving about the floor, without 
speaking pretty loud. Conspicuous among those moving about 
were the candidates for the Judgeships of the Superior Courts, 
who are to be elected in a day or two, and who were going 
from member to member soliciting votes. ■ Lobbying ' is 
strictly forbidden by a special article of the Constitution, but 
that provision is certainly not observed, unless, indeed, it be 
considered that canvassing ivithin the House is not 'lobby- 
23 



354 MY JOUKNAL. 

ing.' It is the habit of American Legislatures to have a 
roll-call upon many occasions. Members are not allowed to 
absent themselves so easily as with us. To-day there was a 
roll-call at the commencement of business in the Senate, but 
it was dispensed with in the Assembly by a motion. Prayers 
were said by a chaplain, who happened to be an Episcopalian, 
but the duty is taken, turn and turn about, by the ministers 
of various denominations. The pay of the legislators is not 
high, and has lately been reduced. It is only a daily allow- 
ance while the session lasts, and hardly covers expenses ; so 
there is no temptation to do much legislation on that ground. 

Afterwards I was introduced to Mr. Colquitt, the present 
Governor. He puts it that everything in Georgia is done by 
the representatives of the people, not by the people them- 
selves. That, I take it, is the great difference between tlie 
Southern system and that of the Xorth, where the popular 
township is the basis and original unit of the political sys- 
tem. The Governor and others whom I met, and who have 
had experience of Congress as well as of local Legislatures, 
say that the latter work better and give more satisfaction 
than does Congress ; but a Senator who heard this view inter- 
posed with the caution, ' You must look inside, here and else- 
where, in regard to legislation : there is too much of " Tickle 
me, and I'll tickle you." ' It seems that at this moment there 
is a secret committee sitting on some large disbursements 
in regard to which imputations have been made against the 
Governor. 

At the hotel I met a planter of extreme Democratic 
views, strongly opposed to Independents and all other defec- 
tors from the party. He thinks niggers are only made to 
be slaves. They work well when compelled, but will do 
nothing without compulsion. He has himself a farm of 
500 acres, and no man has worked harder than he has ; but 
he cannot make a living — with the price of cotton so much 
down and wages not down the cultivation is a dead loss, 
and he is disgusted with the world. Between us, however, 
we made out the moral to be that a farm so large as his does 
not pay, especially when the owner does not like niggers. 
He is now dividing it up. Part he has given to his sons, and 
part he is selling. He admits that men with small farms, 
who work themselves and can look well after -two or three 
nigger servants, may live. 



GEOEGIA. oOO 

In the evening^ I walked out into the country and saw 
some of the country people. I interyiewed a small black 
farmer who has a farm of twelye acres, in the midst of the 
woods. He was a slave. After emancipation the owners of 
this land, who were relations of his former mistress, allowed 
him to squat and clear this patch, on the understanding that 
he was to pay rent when he could. Presently the land was 
sold, and the new owner makes him pay four dollars an acre 
— a heavy rent ; but he does not seem to complain, as the land 
is near the town. He has eight acres in cotton, and expected 
to have got three or four bales or more ; but there has been 
much drought this year, and he has little more than two 
bales. One bale I saw screwed up and ready for market, but 
he is keeping it back -for a better price. He gets along 
pretty well ; but many others are worse off, wages being 
low and employment precarious. He explains, however, that 
what he calls low wages is Mtj cents a day, or sometimes 
sixty or seventy cents, when work can be got. He is a 
strong Republican in his politics, but says that many of his 
fellow-blacks are won over to the other side. Altogether, 
though quite uneducated, he seemed to be a good and intelli- 
gent specimen. 

Next day I made the acquaintance of Mr. O , the 

Superintendent of State Schools, a thorough old Southerner, 
who literally ' never set foot on free soil ' till his own State 
was made free ; and to this day he has never been in the 
Northern States. He is now, however, very zealous in favour 
of progress and education. I- went to hear a lecture given 
by him in the evening. He says he began by being strongly 
against education, but now finds it is the only way of dealing 
with the people under present circumstances, and he only 
wants money to carry it out. The State has behaved very 
handsomely in maintaining a black college, where 200 young 
negroes receive Avhat he thinks only rather too high an edu- 
cation. The educated blacks look to be politicians, preachers, 
and teachers. The effect is not unlike the higher education 
in India, the only difference being that there the educated 
natives look to being lawyers, while here they look to be 

politicians. Mr. O maintains that, imperfect as they 

are, the ordinary country schools are doing much good — 
three months' schooling is better than nothing: the seed is 
being sown. In most of the large towns and one or two 



356 MY JOUKNAL. 

counties, they have a superior system, and keep the schools 

open much longer. A man in Mr. O s position is not at 

all situated like one of our inspectors of schools. He is a poli- 
tical office-holder as much as one of our Ministers, and his 
lecture was, in fact, a political speech of a departmental char- 
acter. He appealed especially for funds for his department. 
He and others want to introduce a special drink-tax, such as 
that called in Virginia the 'Moffat tax,' which, he says, 
would yield a large sum ; and he is also very strong for a dog- 
tax, to go in aid of education. For an out-and-out Southern 
man he seems extremely reasonable. He says, with hosts of 
other Southerners, he considers the war is ended, and they 
do not want to renew it, but want to make the best of the 
existing situation. 

Another day I spent principally in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. The galleries were very well filled, many ladies 
being there, and on one side many blacks. The interest is 
principally on account of the election of the United States 
Senator, which is to take place this day, although there is no 
opposition. The proceedings were of an ordinary kind, but 
a fair debate of some length arose, in which the speaking 
was brief and to the point. The House was quite patient, 
but at last the ' previous question ' was moved and the pro- 
ceedings brought to a close. The members seemed generally 
very quiet ; there was little ' Hear, hearing ; ' and when at 
last a hit was made it was recognised by stamping and ap- 
plause such as we have at public meetings. The members 
generally were respectable-looking and well-dressed ; only a 
few were in rural-farmer sort of clothes. I noticed nothing 
very American except a good deal of spitting. In debate 
there was a little less strictness than in our own Houses of 
Parliament — more interruption and questions put by one 
speaker to another — but still parliamentary form was suffi- 
ciently maintained to remove the proceedings from any im- 
putation of a parish-vestry character. The business seemed 
to be well got through in a simple and dignified way. When 
the time came for the election of the Senator the two Houses 
came together in joint session. There was then a roll-call, and 
each member rose in his place and gave his vote. There is 
no ballot in this election. 

I was introduced to an ex-member of Congress, Mr. P — — . 
He comes from the extreme north-east of this State — the 



GEORGIA. 357 

hilly country, where the gold-mines are worked. It seems 
that all the north of Georgia was acquired from the Indians 
when they were moved beyond the Mississippi in the present 
century. Their lands were purchased by the State of Georgia 
and divided up in forty-acre lots ; and thus it is that small 
white farmers owning their own lands are very numerous in 
that part of the country. Now there are no lands belonging 
to the State except irreclaimable swamps. Some of the mines 
are now to a considerable extent worked by convict labour. 
It seems that a very large number of blacks are sent to prison, 
and that they are generally hired out. In slave times little 
was thought of petty pickings — such as taking a turnip from a 
field — but now such things are very severely punished. I 

asked Mr. P about the jury system. lie admits that few 

blacks are put upon juries, except in the United States Courts, 
but he declares that the blacks prefer white jurors and gen- 
erally challenge those of their own race, because the latter are 
bloodily inclined, and are always for hanging culprits. They 
do not like poor whites, and prefer those who have owned 
slaves — the latter generally have a sympathy for the blacks. 

Mr. P says that the forms and style of the Legislature 

here very much resemble Congress, and the rules are much 
the same. In the session of 186S-9 there were two sides, 
much as there are in Congress. The whites at first expelled 
the blacks from the Legislature, alleging that they were not 
eligible to sit there ; but the blacks were restored by the au- 
thority of Congress. In spite, however, of some struggles at 
this period, this State did not suffer much from Republican 
rule. The men in power were capable men, and the best men 
of the State lent a hand. Some people seem to think that the 
Constitution of 18G8 was better than the new one which has 
just been inaugurated. There being no townships in this 
State, the counties are divided into militia and education dis- 
tricts. The militia districts are an old institution, and they 
are used as a convenient arrangement for other purposes also. 
As in other States, many special local bills are passed by the 
State Legislature, such as bills to authorise a particular county 
to raise a special education tax, or to deal with the 'fence 
question ; ' to stop the sale of liquor in particular places, or 
to give the inhabitants the option of doing so. I have been 
inquiring regarding the liquor laws prevailing here ; they are 
somewhat complicated, but I make them out to be as follows : — 



358 MY JOURNAL. 

First, the United States levy and excise duty on all spirits, 
and also a quarterly duty for licenses to sell ; but for retail 
sale a man must also get a license from the State of Georgia. 
These licenses are given by the Probate Judge or Judge-Ordi- 
nary, who as a rule gives them to every person of good char- 
acter and who can give sufficient security for his conduct. 
For this local license another license fee is levied, which goes 
to the funds of the county. The Legislature may, and often 
does, grant to corporate towns authority to levy these license 
fees on their own account, and they generally charge much 
higher rates in the town than in the country. For instance, the 
local license tax for liquor-shops in this part of the country is 
825 in rural places, but $300 hi Atlanta. In places where the 
sale of liquor is prohibited by law every kind of sale is prohi- 
bited. There is no exception in favour of wine merchants or 
grocers ; but private persons are not prevented from importing 
their own liquors from distilleries in other parts of the country. 
I visited Colonel P , a gentleman to whom I had an in- 
troduction, and who is a very old institution here. His family 
had much property in Pennsylvania, but he came up here 
a long time ago, and acquired land which had been bought 
from the Indians ; he was, in fact, one of the first settlers 
in Atlanta. He says that large tracts of land situate in 
central Pennsylvania, by which his family expected to make 
their fortunes, were eventually sold for a dollar an acre, 
the people having gone "West, not caring to cultivate the 
poorer lands in that part of the country. During the war 

Colonel P did a large business in blockade-running, for 

which he had facilities in being President of one or two 
Southern railways, and he seems to have made much money 
in that way. Besides much property and a large model farm 
in this State he has a ' ranch ' in New Mexico, looked after by 
one of his sons. Altogether he seems to have been a great 
speculator and enterpriser. He is evidently now a thorough 
Southerner in feeling. He thinks the negro first-rate to 
' shovel dirt,' a function for which he was made, but no good 
for much else. He must be ' kept in his place,' as it is the 
fashion to say in Georgia. In accordance with the common 
opinion here, he says that the cultivation of cotton has been 
overdone, and the soil exhausted by overcropping. Many 
people are now emigrating to Texas ; and, besides the white 
people who go there, a good many unattached blacks have 



GEORGIA. 359 

been carried off to the South- Western States by people who 
have embarked in enterprises in that direction. He, like 
others, says that the attempt to carry on large farms in this 
part of the country has not been successful. They are now 
being divided up, but the division is arrived at more by the 
partition of estates among the members of families than by 
selling to negroes. This is a healthy country, and the popu- 
lation increases. The Southern gentlemen now work much 
better than they did. According to some, however, the whites 
work only because they must; and the negroes work too, 
although they had rather not. Colonel P says the ne- 
groes are not fitted to hold farms. The renting system leads 
to deterioration of the land. A negro lets it run out, and 
only cultivates the best part. People are going back from 
this renting system, and prefer moderate-sized farms of their 
own, upon which they can employ two or more negroes and 
look after them well. He talks with horror of the immorality 
of the negroes, and is altogether pessimist upon this subject. 
He and others are strong on the badness of the free and inde- 
pendent young negroes who have grown up since the war. 
The old ones have some virtues ; but you cannot strike them 
now, and similarly they cannot and do not strike and disci- 
pline their children, who are growing up unbroken and un- 
controlled. It does seem as if there was some ground for 
apprehension on this score. 

Colonel P took me to see some great iron-works. All 

seemed to be agreed that for manual labour, in this climate at 
any rate, the blacks are better than the whites, and in the 
works here the ordinary labour is exclusively done by black 
men. They would not have white men if they could get 
them. If the negro is kept in his place and is made to work 
he does very well, but he is not fit to rise higher ; he has no 
' judgment,' and does not make a skilled mechanic. The 
Georgian who is head of the office at these works takes entire- 
ly the • same view as Colonel P , or goes even farther. 

According to him the negro is unthrifty to the last degree, 
drinks and dances, is dishonest and immoral. He says he 
knows South Carolina, and is sure that the negroes who have 
farms on the Islands there cultivate them miserably. They 
have only some garden-patches ; few of them go to the phos- 
phate works regularly. They labour only for a few days at a 
time when they are driven to it by the necessity to get a lit- 



360 MY JOURNAL. 

tie money. That is the other side of the shield. On the 
other hand, an Ohio man, who superintends the iron manu- 
facture, tells quite a different story. He says that there are 
instances here of negroes developing much mechanical skill 
and conducting themselves very well. He has one who is a 
very superior mechanic, but he is kept working under an in- 
ferior white. He doubts if the negroes will be allowed to 
rise. There are no regular trades unions against them, but 
there is a general view that the negro must be kept in his 
place. No doubt most of them are somewhat wanting in 
judgment. According to the Georgian the negroes cannot 
see straight. As carpenters they always will fit their work 
crooked. The Ohio man, however, says that a good many 
are not only quite good workmen, but also thrifty and dis- 
posed to save, and have by saving come to own their own 
houses and a little land ; but he says that they are frequently 
ousted on questions of title. There are many pettifogging 
lawyers about always ready to get up a case, civil or criminal, 
against a negro. The blacks are sent to the chain-gang very 
readily ; when men are wanted for the chain-gang they are 
always got. He concurs, however, to some extent with what 
I had been told about the indiscipline of the younger negroes. 
He has some who have been to prison, and the chain-gang 
discipline certainly improves them. He prefers to take a 
young man who has served for a time in the chain-gang. 

In the evening at the hotel I had some talk with Geor- 
gians of the upper class, with the general result that their 
opinions are unfavourable to the negroes, who are, they say, of 
an extremely migratory disposition. They wander about too 
much. If a man is discharged he does not care ; he steals till 
he gets another job. A farmer sitting by, however, interposed 
to say that in the last three or four years they have much 
improved. He says he has a good deal given up the cultiva- 
tion of cotton, going in for other things, and finds that with 
a moderate number of negro hands he can do very well. 
People here do not seem to have adopted the South Carolina 
J3lan of fixing the negroes by selling them small patches of 

land. Judge C , a sensible man who has a considerable 

estate, seems from what he says to get on pretty well with the 
negroes upon it. He likes the share plan, provided that he 
keeps the management and direction entirely in his own hands, 
and pays the cultivators their share of the crops, instead of 



GEOEGIA. 361 

tlieir paying him. Some of them do very well. They have 
a house and small enclosure of land for vegetables and provi- 
sions for themselves, and then, with a mule supplied by him, 
a man will cultivate perhaps forty acres, haK in corn and 
half in cotton. He gives them half of the corn and one-third 
of the cotton for themselves, or the value of it. 

I have been looking over some of the statistics of Georgia 
and South Carolina with reference to the coloured population, 
but I fancy they are not very reliable, and they are not made 
out on a uniform plan, so as fully to admit of comparison. In 
South Carolina they have had a census of their own subse- 
quent to the United States census, and claim a population 
exceeding that arrived at by the United States in IS 70 by 
some two hundred thousand. According to their census there 
are in South Carolina, in round number-. 350,000 whites and 
575,000 blacks. In Georgia there has been no recent census. 
The United States census of 1870 gives 639,000 whites and 
545,000 blacks. People here say that after emancipation 
there was a very great .mortality among the blacks, especially 
among the women and children, yet this statement is hardly 
reconcilable with the census returns. The Georgia census of 
1860 gave 465,000 blacks, which number was increased to 
545,000 in 1870. The increase now must be more rapid, 
there being no special mortality, except, perhaps, to some 
degree, from want of sufficient care of infants. The number 
of tax-polls according to the last return is — whites. 126,985 ; 
blacks. 83,900 : but I understand that the full number of tax- 
polls has not yet been got at. The numbers have been in- 
creasing a great deal. The blacks pay taxes upon 501,000 
acres out of upwards of thirty-seven millions of acres, but 
that includes all land, cultivated and waste. Of a total of 
6,804,437 acres of 'improved land' the returns give 176,915 
acres as cultivated by blacks as proprietors. 

Heading the local papers next morning I observe that 
they do not report the debates of the Legislature : they only 
give the proceedings, with the briefest notice of each speech. 

To-day I again visited the office of the Comptroller- 
General and that of the Superintendent of the Geological and 
Agricultural Departments. The Comptroller-General is the 
head of the Department of Ee venue. There is no income- 
tax in Georgia, only the usual property-tax, also the poll-tax 
for education, and a special tax on lawyers, doctors, dentists, 



362 MY JOURNAL. 

and billiard-keepers, in tlie nature of a license fee. The 
counties collect a pedlers' tax, which seems to be principally 
in the interest of the storekeepers. In towns there are 
special taxes under the Acts of Incorporation. In Atlanta 
they tax storekeepers on the amount of sales. The question 
of the drink-tax, on the Yirginian model, and of the dog-tax, 
is now being raised in the Legislature. 

At the Agricultural Department the general lie of the 
country was explained to me. A great deal of Georgia is 
elevated, and from the higher lands the country slopes down- 
wards. The old-established towns are generally situated 
where the rivers run out into the low country at the head of 
the navigation, where are also the principal cotton-lands. 
Lower still come the pine-barrens and swamps, and then the 
Sea Islands. The broad pine-belt extends not only through 
the States which I have visited, but round through Alabama 
and Mississippi and well into Texas. The Superintendent 
states, what 1 had been before told, that in the lower country 
all the best lands had come into the possession of the rich 
slave-owners, while the poorer whites are principally found on 
the inferior lands ; that is, the pine-barrens, which, he says, 
are not really bad land. There is a sandy surface something 
like that in Prussia, but clay underlies the surface, and that 
holds fertilisers well. Georgia was certainly much more 
democratic in its origin than Virginia or South Carolina. 
When a great part of the State, especially all the upper part, 
was acquired by successive purchases from the Indians, the 
land of Georgia belonging to the State itself not to the United 
States, each new acquisition was marked out in parcels and 
apportioned by lot to the people of the State. Many of these 
lots were not occupied, and were purchased for a song by the 
richer people. To this day, in fact, many of the lots have not 
been occupied, and the purchasers do not know where they are. 
These are what are called ' wild lands ; ' and there is a ' Wild 
Land ' Office, the business of which is to find out these uncul- 
tivated lands and to tax them — for hitherto they have not 
been properly taxed. Before the war there was in this State 
an extreme jealousy of interlopers. So far from encouraging 
new immigrants, the Georgians wished to keep them out and 
to keep all the lands for themselves. All this is now changed 
— they are delighted to sell their lands when they can find 
purchasers, and new-comers are exceedingly welcome. 



GEOEGIA. 363 

We are now having rain, which, I am told, is not unusual 
in November, and is generally followed by a week of clear 
frost. That is the hog-killing season. From the middle of 
December to the middle of February there is generally quite 
a rainy season — only a little snow coming at the last. In 
spring they generally have good showers, and in the early 
summer there are frequent thunder-showers. There is gene- 
rally heavy rain in August and a dry autumn. 

The present Legislature is much bent on economy. They 
not only want to reduce the number of Circuit Judges — a 
question which I heard debated — but also do not like the cost 
of the Agricultural and Geological Departments. The farmers 
especially object to the Agricultural Department as useless. 

I had again a good deal of talk with several men. They 
all stoutly maintain that Georgia deserves credit as having set 
an example to other States in the treatment of the negro. 
After the war, instead of refusing to take any part in affairs, 
as the white leaders of some States did, they accepted the 
situation, sent their best men to the Convention that was then 
held, and managed to get things arranged, so that they did 
not fare very badly. After one legislative term, in which 
parties were pretty equally balanced, they got the complete 
control. Since then their policy has been justice to and im- 
provement of the negro. One statement took me quite by 
surprise, and I have not been able to verify it. They assert 
that at this moment there are more drilled negro militia than 
there are of whites. They say that from the first they thought 
they could manage the blacks best by drilling, disciplining, and 
trusting them ; that the militia is far better than the secret 
clubs, and that they know well they can take the arms from 
the blacks when they wish to do so. 

I notice that there is in the papers to-day the report of an 
official committee upon the militia. They want to have it 
regularly organized, with pecuniary assistance from the State, 
a Georgian flag, and several other ambitious things. That 
looks as if those who framed the report wished to go very far 
in the way of State independence. I have been looking over 
the report of the Adjutant-General of South Carolina regard- 
ing the withdrawal of arms from the Black National Guards. 
He says that arms were issued indiscriminately to the people, 
and it was necessary to take them away from those who were 
not qualified to use them. He also complains that under an 



364 MY JOURNAL. 

Act of 1874 companies called Rifle Clubs have been organised, 
which are not part of the military establishment of the State, 
and which interfere with the due organisation of the National 
Guards. He suggests confining the National Guards to the 
great cities, as is, he says, the case in other States. 

The gentlemen to whom I have been talking dwell much 
on what they have done for the education of the blacks. 
When pressed as to what else they have done for them they 
rather deal in generalities, talking of their good and con- 
ciliatory treatment. They say the blacks are now quite con- 
tent and willingly go with the whites. They would be all 
right but for the interference of carpet-baggers, and, above 
all, of the ' New England school ma/rms? These they declare 
to be the pest of the world, putting false ideas of equality into 
the heads of the blacks, especially the black women, whom all 
agree in describing as the most troublesome of the race. 
Some time ago, they say, a black woman would only accept 
the place of cook in the character of a lady-help. Now that 
they have got rid of the Northerners, a black woman will con- 
duct herself as an ordinary cook. They admit that they have 
done nothing special to settle the negroes on land, as has been 
done in South Carolina. They had not thought of the advan- 
tage of fixing them down ; but they declare that they are 
quite ready to sell land to them if they will only be thrifty 
and save money for the purpose, as some in fact do. But 
they say that the blacks like society, their wives like dress and 
dances and shows, and being free to do as they liked they 
sought to obtain these advantages of freedom in the towns. 
Now many have gone back to the country. They have as 
much land as could be expected in so short a time. I could 
not, however, obtain any explanation of the fact shown by the 
statistics, that there has been scarcely any increase in the 
negro ownership of land in the last two or three years. It 
must be a long time, they say, before the negroes generally 
hold land. Gradually they may acquire it, but for the present 
most of them must be tenants or labourers. I have not been 
able to carry the question further than that. I had been told 
that in one county there was a Granger's League — a combina- 
tion not to sell land to negroes — and that the negroes there- 
upon check-mated the land-owners by themselves making a 
league to leave that county. My friends deny any knowledge 
of the Granger's League, but they admit to have heard of the 



GEORGIA. 3G5 

black league in Houston County. They admit that very many 
whites have disgraced themselves by failing to pay wages 
earned by the black labourers. That has been a general com- 
plaint everywhere, but things, they say, are in that respect 
not so bad in Georgia as in several other States. They tell 
stories of the childish character of the negro — but he works 
well. There is no better worker when he is at it, only he is 
always liable to the temptation to sit up at night to dance and 
frolic. He is given to spout ridiculously in church, and to 
steal and lie, and he is very bad in love matters. He is very 
stupid in his crime, and is always found out, and so it is that 
he always gets into the penitentiary when the police would 
never detect a white man. 

I confess I am more and more suspicious about the 
criminal justice of these southern states. In Georgia there is 
no regular penitentiary at all, but an organised system of let- 
ting out the prisoners for profit. Some people here have got 
up a company for the purpose of hiring convicts. They pay 
825,000 a year besides all expenses of food and keep, so that 
the money is clear profit to the state. The lessees work the 
prisoners both on estates and in mines, and apparently main- 
tain severe discipline in their own way, and make a go.od 

thing of it. Colonel P , who is not very mealy-mouthed, 

admits that he left the concern because he could not stand the 
inhumanity of it. Another partner in the concern talked with 
great glee of the money he had made out of the convicts. 
This does seem simply a return to another form of slavery. 

Here, too, I am told that there is a greater separation of 
the white and black castes than there was before the war. 
Now there is complete separation in churches and schools. 
It was a black member who moved and carried in the legis- 
lature that the two classes of schools should be. for ever sepa- 
rate. The separation is the doing of the blacks. They do 
not like association on terms of inferiority. 

A man to whom I talked to-day says that cotton can only 
be profitably cultivated by blacks. It is their habit and edu- 
cation to cultivate cotton and it gives them constant employ- 
ment all the year round in a way which the white men do not 
like. The southern white man feels the necessity of labour 
now and does labour, but he is better at raising corn and such 
things than cotton. 

I had a good deal of talk with Governor Browne, a very 



366 MY JOUKNAL. 

shrewd and remarkable man. He is a self-made man, but 
was Governor of Georgia for eight years down to the close of 
the war. He seems to have been engaged in blockade-run- 
ning, and to have made a good deal of money in that way ; 
and since the war, like all the great men in this country, he 
is president of railways and mining companies. He is evi- 
dently very much respected and still quite sustains his repu- 
tation of being a very long-headed man. He has been a 
great deal over the States, has had properties and specula- 
tions in many other states besides his own. I talked to him 
about the condition of some of the Southern States which I 
have not visited. He says that Alabama soon got the gov- 
ernment into its own hands, though not quite so soon as 
Georgia, and is now pretty quiet and peaceful, though suffer- 
ing from the low price of cotton ; for that is a very great 
cotton state. Both Mississippi and Louisiana have had 
troubles like those of South Carolina. The feeling between 
blacks and whites seems to be worse in Mississippi than in 
any other state. In Mississippi the best cotton grows on the 
ridge of highish land near the river ; behind that there are 
impracticable swamps, and back beyond that again comes 
higher land on which cotton is raised throughout the whole 
length of the state. In Louisiana sugar is doing better than 
it was, but owing to the liability to frost it is cultivated at a 
great disadvantage as compared to Cuba. The great trouble 
of the Southern States is the debt, most of which was con- 
tracted to promote railways. Governor Browne says that the 
coloured French Creoles of Louisiana, or at any rate the 
higher class among them, took part with the whites, and 
having lost their property are now generally Democratic. 
He does not know that any prominent men among them 
have attempted to become the political leaders of the blacks. 
They still prefer the white man, and in the New Orleans 
country the latter to some extent recognise them and admit 
them to their society to some degree. 

In the evening I took tea with Colonel P and his 

family. Though he is, I believe, a rich man, he lives in a 
very simple style, as does everyone here. All the governors 
of these states seem to be really poor men who now live in 
cottages, but they are also men of some family and considera- 
tion in their states. Colonel P is full of stories of the 

way in which money was made in the war by blockade-run- 



GEORGIA. 367 

ning and suchlike business, especially by those who had com- 
mand of the railways. The sharpest people among the South- 
erners seem to have gone in for blockade-runnings which they 
found much more profitable than fighting. As to the war. 

Colonel P says that at first the Southerners put a splendid 

set of men into the field — they had long been preparing for 
it — but almost all those were killed or disabled, and then, 
what with inferior men and pressed men. their armies were 
not at all what they had been. As the war went on. the 
Southern armies became much worse while the Xorthem 
armies became much better. As long as they had only to 
fight in front, they did very well, but their position was much 
altered when the Federals got possession of the line of the 
Mississippi. Then came Sherman's march and much destruc- 
tion of cotton, which the Federals made contraband and 
seized, while the Confederates burnt it to prevent it from fall- 
ing into the hands of the other party. There was thus much 
Buffering in the Southern States and a great want of many 
luxuries, such as coffee and sugar. Under these circumstances 
half of Lee's men deserted and came to look after their fami- 
lies, and so at last the South turned out to be an empty shell. 

Colonel P says that hi these parts no one drinks tea 

— coffee is universally drunk, generally with sugar and with- 
out milk. 

In the evening I went to hear General Gordon, the newly- 
elected senator, who gave an address. He was very eloquent 
and successful, but I thought too much in the style of an 
energetic preacher. I understand now where the negro 
preachers get their style. General Gordon's discourse was 
principally a very strong attack upon the Independents. 
He seemed to advocate extreme views — { a solid South,' and so 
on. They had got State after State, and now South Carolina 
too, and they would not go back. Shame to those who broke 
their own ranks. After the meeting I fraternised with 
several legislators at the Kimball, and had two or three invi- 
tations to * take a drink.' All were very civil and cordial and 
inclined to talk of England as their model. That seems 
quite the fashion here. I met a man who is canvassing for a 
judgeship, and who has. he said, been up till one or two in the 
morning for several nights in succession at that work. 

The next day I went to the election of judges by the 
combined Houses in joint session. It is done in the same way 



368 . . MY JOURNAL. 

as the election of senator and is a dignified enough kind of 
proceeding, each member rising as his name is called and 
giving his vote. The salary of a jndge is $2,500 (say 500Z.) a 
year, and there is tremendous canvassing for the place. They 
say this canvassing is absolutely necessary ; the greatest lawyer 
in the United States would not be elected if he did not work 
hard for it. So much is this so, under the present system, 
that many people say that they prefer the former plan when 
the Governor nominated with the consent of the Legislature, 
or even when the judges were elected by the people who are 
too numerous to be canvassed. There were very hot contests 
for the judgeships and inferior offices, but when the election 
w r as over I heard everyone say that the man he worked for 
had been elected. 

I visited the editor of the small weekly Independent paper 
published here, or as some call it the republican paper. He 
did not speak at all bitterly. When Governor Bullock was 
elected as a republican there was a good deal of ' bull-dozing ' 
on the part of the Democrats, but now things have settled 
down. The principal fault of Governor Bullock was that he 
was elected by the black vote. The general opinion seems to 
be that there was no truth in the charges on account of which 
he was driven aw r ay. There is still a little bull-dozing and a 
good deal of influence bribery and whisky used to back the 
regular Democratic candidates. The blacks are always ready 
to vote for any man who goes against the regular Democratic 
ticket. This gentleman, however, joins in the general state- 
ment that Georgia treats the blacks fairly well. If willing to 
vote Democratic they will be well enough treated. He says it 
is true that the blacks have been armed and encouraged to 
take their part as militiamen. Fair j astice is given to them 
in the courts ; there is a disposition to treat them as not very 
responsible children. In the last sessions one white man was 
convicted of murder when two blacks were acquitted. The 
blacks are treated more fairly in the settlement of their ac- 
counts at the end of the year in Georgia than in other states. 
In lower Georgia there is still some unfairness, and in some 
other states the blacks are certainly very unfairly treated in 
this matter. They are so improvident that they must get ad- 
vances to support them during the cultivating season, and both 
storekeepers and landowners - stick it on ' to them terribly 
when the account is made out at the end of the season. 



GEOEGIA. 369 

I had a call from Mr. TV , a Scotch-Irishman settled 

here. He was bred a cotton-spinner, and emigrated when 
cotton-spinning came to an end in Ireland. He had mills here 
before the war, since which time he has acquired large landed 
property. Before the war he employed in his mills negroes 
and negresses along with some free whites. That was not* an 
uncommon practice, and they did very well : but since eman- 
cipation the blacks have not been employed in the mills. He 
also took me to see a friend, another Scotch-Irishman, who 
came out with nothing, and now has a large dry-goods store, 
and seems a prosperous man. Atlanta is a new place, and 
there are a great many self-made men in it. This gentleman, 
though not very long out, fought on the Confederate side in 
the war. He showed me his goods ; most of them are of 
American make, but many of them English. The mills in 
these parts, he says, make capital woollen goods for common 
use. Georgian wool is used, but it is not well cleaned, and 
the finer woollen goods come from England. They make a 
capital kind of mixed goods which are very largely used, and 
are quite cheap. Iso doubt the best woollen clothes are ex- 
cessively dear in this country, but he declares the Americans 
will beat us in cottons. The ' domestics ' made in the Xorth 
are far better than the same class of goods from England. 
He says that the enormous progress of American manufac- 
tures in the last ten years is patent and astonishing. The 
Americans are extremely ready to invent or imitate, and he 
thinks English manufactures are doomed to decline. Southern 
white labour is as cheap and good as any labour of the kind 
in the world. The white mill- workers are a good class of 
people, and very often own their own houses, or if not the 
mill-owners take much care in providing houses and comforts 
for them. 

Mr. "W does not farm himself but manages his land 

entirely by letting it out. He has both black and white 
tenants. One black man, a respectable Methodist elder, runs 
ten ploughs ; yet he is not very provident. He is always 
liable for a heavy account for advances during the year, and 
does not seem to save. Some blacks, however, are provident ; 
they generally pay their rent quite well, there is no serious 
difficulty about that. The ginning mills are all rented out 
as well as the land. In this way he gets fair interest for his 
monev with some trouble. In some respects he might prefer 
24 



370 MY JOUKNAL. 

the blacks to white tenants, but they are very migratory. 
That is the universal complaint. They do not like to stay 

long anywhere. However, Mr. ~W does not find that 

they let the land down badly. They are bound to repair the 
fences, &c, and they do it. He finds, however, that he has 
too much land, and he thinks of selling. He has another 
large estate in the Sea Island country, which he took for a 
bacl debt, but now he gets nothing from it. Some negroes 
squat on it, and cultivate patches, and fish. He might get* 
some rent from them, but it would not be enough to repay 
the trouble and cost of collection. I think Georgian land- 
owners might well try to locate these blacks as has been done 

in the Beaufort country. Mr. W , however, hopes to 

make his low country estate into a cattle farm. 

To-day I noticed a very large number of small farmers 
bringing cotton to market in their waggons. Most of them 
were whites, driving themselves, and evidently quite labour- 
ing men. They had one or two blacks with them, but not 
very many. There were also a few black farmers. The 
blacks whom I questioned were mostly tenants upon the share 
system. They appeared to me rather a low class, and their 
answers to my questions quite tallied with the accounts I had 
had of their migratory habits. They generally had not re- 
mained very long in one place. The white farmers seemed 
good-looking men, but poorly clad. They looked like poor 
Irish farmers. They came in covered waggons, in which they 
live and sleep, and some of them had their wives and children 
with them in the waggons. I am told a good many people 
from these parts have gone to Texas, both white and black ; 
some of them have come back again. 

I receive a good many visits from people who have seen 
my name in the newspapers. Altogether there is a general 
disposition to treat me civilly and to lionise me in a small 
way here. As they say, an English traveller and M.P. is rare 
up here. 

This evening I had a talk with a nice gentleman-like 
elderly man, member for Athens and a strong Independent. 
He gave me the views of that party in opposition to those of 
General Gordon. He explains the evils of the caucus system. 
Generally everything is settled by half-a-dozen jobbers, and 
without any reference to the electors at large. If need be he 
says let us have a primary election, but there are many objec- 



GEORGIA. 371 

tions to it. It has no law or check of any kind, and should 
only be resorted to to decide between Democrats when a 
Radical stands, and the seat is in danger. That not being 
the case in Georgia the caucus system is totally uncalled for, 
and is a mere abuse to give power to jobbers. Therefore it 
is that there has been a successful uprising of the people 
against it. Moreover, the system, he says, is a gross breach 
of faith with the black voters, who are excluded from the 
caucus. He says the Independents get a fair proportion of 
the black votes, but not by any means all, as the other party 
pay largely for votes and otherwise coerce and influence the 
voters. He dwells on the heaviness of taxation in conse- 
quence of the debts of the State and the need of economy ; 
but when I asked him for particulars regarding the heaviness 
of taxation he seemed to refer rather to municipal than to 
general taxation. It is very much what I have heard in other 
quarters. Here the State tax is 40 cents in the 100 dols. of 
capital value besides 10 cents to form a sinking fund to get 
rid of the debt. The county taxation is not heavy, but there 
is heavy taxation in the towns, often amounting to $2'50 per 
cent, on capital value. I cannot quite make out how the 
value of personal property is got at — in that respect the tax 
is certainly much evaded. As is the case with us, rich men 
often live in fine villa houses outside the towns, and so escape 
the town taxation. Under the present constitution new laws 
and appropriations, and elections by the Legislature require an 
absolute majority of the whole House to be present and vote 
for the measure. 

They say that the position of United States Senator 
is generally preferred to that of Governor of a State. 
General Gordon gives a reception this evening in the form 
of a great wine party to the members of the Legislature. 
I am told that in Washington and Philadelphia and some 
other great cities it is common enough to have men's 
receptions of this kind, from which ladies are excluded. 
They have fine suppers and wines, and everything that is 
brilliant. 

The next day I started by rail for Calhoun, about eighty 
miles north of Atlanta. I am suprised by the goodness of 
the country, and the large extent of cultivation. I am told 
that cultivation extends a long way on either side of the line, 
especially along the course of the rivers. There is also much 



372 MY JOURNAL. 

forest, as is the case in all this country. There is very little 
rise after leaving Atlanta, the highest point is not more than 
1,200 feet above the sea. . This railway line is very largely 
advertised as the ' Great Kenesaw Route,' which takes its 
name from the Kenesaw Mountain ; and on the pictorial 
advertisements the Kenesaw Mountain is very magnificent 
indeed ; but when I came to see the reality it turned out to 
be a very moderate hill — perhaps 500 feet above the surround- 
ing country. We crossed several rivers, which now run to- 
wards Mobile and the Gulf of Mexico. As we got on, the 
level of the country became lower, and several of these rivers 
are navigable, especially for a considerable distance upwards. 
It is also hoped to make them navigable downwards, so that 
we are in a much less sloping country than that which drains 
towards the Atlantic, and there is complaint of want of 
water-power for saw-mills and other machinery. The culti- 
vation is various ; there is a good deal of cotton, but also a 
good deal of corn and wheat. They say anything will grow 
here, but no one thing grows so well as it does somewhere 

else. I went to pay a visit at a farm of Colonel P 's, 

near Calhoun, now occupied by his son, Mr. P. P ; and I 

was very hospitably entertained by young Mr. P and his 

wife, a pleasant young lady from Philadelphia. Mr. P 

himself was at school in England, and they both seem very 
nice and refined people. As usual, they live in a very simple 
way, and have not many servants. American ladies, who live 
in the country, manage to do a great deal themselves without 
detracting from their dress and demeanour. There is a stock 

farm here, of which old Colonel P is very proud. There 

was a Jersey bull, said to'be splendid, some rather thin Jersey 
cows, a good many Merino sheep, and a large flock of Angora 

goats. They grow tolerable turnips, and Mr. P has a 

successful field of lucerne. There is a great deal of game 
about here. I saw many of the small American partridges, 
sometimes called quails. They sit capitally to dogs, rise 
in regular coveys like partridges, but fly more like quails. 
There are also some rabbits about, which looked not unlike 
English rabbits, running with cocked tails, showing the 
white. There are many wild turkeys in this country ; they 
are, however, very shy birds, keep in the woods, and are seldom 
seen. Tame turkeys are very abundant in these Southern 
States, and poultry in general is abundant and good. Much 



GEORGIA. 373 

of it is kept by small farmers, and is a great assistance to 
them. 

I drove out a good way into the country, over varied sort 
of ground — some fertile bottoms, and a good deal of higher 
land. The lower and richer land is principally given ,to 
cereals. It does not do well for cotton. The cotton-plant 
grows large and strong, but is not productive there ; whereas 
in the higher red lands the plant is small, but is often covered 
with cotton from top to bottom. The lower lands generally 
belong to the large proprietors. "Wherever there are large 
proprietors there were slaves, and there are now black labour- 
ers. Most of the work in the upper country is done by the 
whites themselves. I saw some good specimens of people of 
this class. Most of them own their own land, but some rent, 
and some go as labourers, getting $8 or $10 a month and ra- 
tions. I liked the look of these people. They are decidedly 
fair with no tinge of swarthiness. Many of them have Scotch 
names — Campbell, Mclntyre, Macinroy, and so on ; but they 
did not know their origin. They came up from the Carolinas 
and Virginia, and did not emigrate direct to this part of the 
country. Most of them live in miserable houses, but some of 
the houses are quite good. Even some considerable proprie- 
tors live in poor log-houses. It is said that some of these peo- 
ple hold on to too much land when they had better sell ; and 
if a purchaser comes they ask too much. Some of the smaller 
tenants live in places unfit for an Irishman, with no windows, 
and showing much daylight between the logs. I never saw 
such poor places, except Irish turf huts. I asked one man 
about it. ' Yes,' he said, laughing ; ' you cannot call it a 
house, but as we have so much air inside we do not catch cold 
when we go out.' This man was a poor labourer, and he had 
half-a-dozen nice-looking children in his wretched one-roomed 
hut. The children, however, looked very well. These people 
seemed altogether a fair-spoken and quite laborious popula- 
tion. 

From the higher parts of the ground that I visited, I saw 
a high range of hills standing out very distinct to the north- 
east. It seems as if the main Alleghanies come to a sudden 
end near this. We met many farmers with bullock-waggons 
coming down from the upper country. They do not grow cot- 
ton there, and scarcely ever had any negroes. They grow bet- 
ter corn and wheat than in the lower land, and much better 



374 MY JOURNAL. 

apples ; and would get on well enough if it were not for the 
United States whisky-blockade, of which they much complain, 
as interfering with their industry in that article. In the 
lower grounds I came upon a few negro farmers, but they were 
only renters ; none of them owned land. One man had got 
some uncleared woodland on a three years' lease, the arrange- 
ment being that he should pay nothing for that time, but 
after that should pay a rent. There is much good timber in 
all this country. It is a limestone country about here, but the 

hills above are sandstone. Mr. P thinks that the small 

farmers make a living without working so hard for it as the 
English labourer. Even during the civil war, though cut off 
from all external commerce, they got on pretty well, raising 
their own necessaries, and being independent of all outside. 
They themselves admit that the smaller farmers still get on 
well enough, so far as living is concerned. They raise enough 
for themselves, and their women weave their clothes; they 
have few wants beyond these. 

People here complain that the pretended free-schools are a 
farce. They are very poor schools, and not enough of them. 
In any case, the parents are obliged to pay at least half of the 
cost. I asked if the preachers came expensive, and was told 
that some take a salary, some do not. One Baptist minister 
runs a fine farm and preaches for nothing. 

After completing a very pleasant visit to Mr. P 's 

farm, I started in the morning to go on to Dalton, in the north- 
west part of Georgia, towards iennessee, where the water- 
shed changes towards the Mississippi. I saw much timber- 
trade going on upon the rivers and the railways. There were 
some very fine walnut logs, much white oak, and also pine and 
other wood. It is feared that the good timber near the rail- 
way will soon be exhausted, but there is plenty of it a little 
farther off. There are no signs of anything like a mountain 
pass ; the road runs through an easy country. There is, in 
fact, a great gap between the hills. 

At Dalton I had a beautiful day, and utilised it by 
taking a long walk into the country, where I saw much of 
the southern white people, visiting a good many of their 
farms. I also came across some blacks. The whites seemed 
to be a pleasant-looking people, though they had still the 
appearance of being poor. Most of them own land, but some 
rent, and some go out as labourers. A few of them hire one 



GEORGIA. 375 

or two blacks as labourers. They say the blacks are not so 
good workers as the whites, and they will only take them at 
cheaper rates. These blacks work very well when they are 
sharply looked after, but they will waste time whenever they 
get the chance. I looked over the log-cabin of a small white 
farmer, and it was about the lowest thing of the kind I have 
seen. On account of the want of water-power and the 
scarcity of saw-mills, most of the cabins here are built of 
very rough logs, and very imperfectly boarded within. This 
one had no window, but very many casual openings in the 
wall, and even in the roof. It consisted of one room, with 
a light shed attached to it behind, which was used for cook- 
ing, etc. The farmer was away, but I found his wife, a very 
nice-locking young woman, with a baby and a boy of twelve, 
an orphan whom they seem to have adopted. He could read 
print, he said, but not write. The woman did not seem to 
realise that the house was particularly bad. Her husband is 
only a renter, but he built this hut himself two years ago. 
She had a loom, and was weaving. She says she makes her 
husband's and her own every-day clothes, but they have to 
buy Sunday clothes and some other things. There was also 
a spinning-wheel, as is generally the case here. She says 
she spins some thread when it is wanted, but they buy most 
of the thread. I was inclined to pity her primitive inno- 
cence and ignorance, and tried to draw her out by asking 
her questions on subjects in respect to which I was not very 
much at home. At last she burst out with a smile, ' Whoy, 
it seems that you do'ant know nothink.' I felt that she had 
the best of it on her own subjects. 

Within reach of the railway there are a good many 
blacks, but I understand that the few there were in the 
higher parts of the country have left it. I talked to an old 
black man who occupied one of a cluster of very poor huts. 
He said that his former mistress had given some of her ex- 
slaves five acres each of woodland, to clear and hold rent-free 
for life. It certainly seems that, in these older States at any 
rate, the relations between the former masters and the blacks 
are often not unkindly, and the masters sometimes do things 
of this kind. My old friend says he got on well enough 
when he could work, but now he is past work, and seems 
rather doubtful of the advantages of freedom. However, he 
and the others seem to form a sort of little community in 



376 MY JOUENAL. 

the woods. The able-hodied men cultivate, the women raise 
chickens and take in washing ; and one way and another 
they manage to get along. On the road I met a very intel- 
ligent and plucky-looking black bringing in his produce to 
market in his waggon — principally peas. His family were 
with him. He has two mules, and seems well-to-do. He 
rents land on a four years' clearing lease, and when that is up 
he hopes to buy land for himself. ' Don't you think that is 
best ? ' he says. These blacks seem to talk and put questions 
in a more simple way than the whites. This man says he 
found the main fences, but himself put up his house and the 
cross fences. He will get no compensation for his improve- 
ments when he goes ; he must leave all those behind. This 
is, perhaps, the reason why the huts are so bad. His sons 
are growing up and marrying, and have farms of their own. 
He himself has re-married with a widow with four children. 
As he pleasantly remarks, his sons are going off into the 
world, and he must have some one to work for. 

In the afternoon I went up a hill to see the country. 
There is evidently a complete break in the hills here. A 
flat tract stretches over into the valley of the Tennessee 
River. The Alleghanies proper terminate to the east, but a 
fresh set of hills, not so high, commence again on the west, 
and one of them is 'look-out mountain' over Chattanooga, 
where the famous battle was fought. The hilly ridge, I un- 
derstand, runs westward, through [Northern Alabama. 

At Dalton I saw a party of very tidy, well-set-up-looking 
blacks playing base-ball, in a very vigorous way, with one or 
two whites mixed with them. The bowler, at any rate, was, 
to all appearance, a white man, as were several of those 
sitting and looking on. Altogether at this place I thought 
I saw more of fraternisation between blacks and whites than 
in most places. 

Chattanooga is not far off in Tennessee. I got a Chatta- 
nooga paper, and have been reading it with reference to Ten- 
nessee politics. It seems that in Chattanooga the Republicans 
have a majority, but the town politics appear more to depend 
upon local and personal questions. At Memphis it seems that 
an Independent was elected district attorney. He has ap- 
pointed a coloured man as his deputy. This has created a 
great sensation, and the orthodox Democrats point to it as 
showing that the Independents are nothing but traitors in dis- 



THE RETURN JOURNEY. 377 

guise. Altogether I gathered, that Tennessee is a country in 
which there is a considerable mixture of parties. It is by no 
means wholly Democratic and anti-black. East Tennessee, hi 
fact, is a white man's country. 

Dalton is quite a country place, but there are nevertheless 
one or two very tolerable hotels, at one of which I was very 
well treated, and had good food. The ' vin du pays ' of this 
country seems to be buttermilk ; everyone drinks it at meals. 



THE RETURN JOURNEY. 

I had hoped, if possible, to get as far as Xew Orleans, and 
thence back by the valley of the Mississippi, but the outburst of 
yellow fever this year has been unprecedently severe, and on 
account of the lateness of the frosts it continued far beyond 
expectation. The country is scarcely yet free from it, and the 
places which have suffered from it are quite disorganised. 
Even Chattanooga, near this, has suffered very greatly, and 
things have not yet returned to their usual condition. I had 
therefore given up the idea of making that tour, and resolved 
to use the rest of my time to dip into Tennessee and West 
Virginia, and spend a few days in "Washington, Philadelphia, 
and Xew York. Here, however, I saw in the papers that 
Parliament was summoned for the discussion of subjects in- 
teresting to me, and finding that the train in which I had 
taken my passage to Knoxville, in Upper Tennessee, was going 
on to Washington, I took a sleeping-berth, and continued my 
journey. This line runs on the western slope of the Alleghanies. 
From the glimpses I got in the night I saw no signs of a 
mountainous region. At dawn we had entered Virginia, but 
we were in a projecting angle of the State west of the water- 
shed, and geographically a part of the Kentucky country which 
it adjoins. Here I at once saw we were in a great grazing 
country. The land was undulating and to some degree hilly, 
fenced off into large grass parks. The grass at this season is 
short, but seems close natural grass. Some of the higher 
parts looked like good sheep walks, and there were a good 
many sheep, but many more cattle, which at this time of the 
year were principally in the lower pastures ; I saw many herds 
of large line well-bred looking cattle, shorthorns and the like ; 
also many good horses. There was a good deal of wood in 



378 MY JOURNAL. 

parts, but most of the grass land was clean and free from 
stumps or weeds. There was a hard frost this morning, and 
a little snow on the higher parts of the road, but the weather 
was bright and clear and became warmer in the middle of the 
day. Some corn is grown in this country, but it is mostly 
in grass. The same style of country continued as we ran on, 
passing over several ridges and crossing several streams, but 
we came to nothing very precipitous or difficult all the way to 
the highest point crossing the Alleghanies. "We then passed 
through a valley skirted by high hills down to the Virginia 
' Piedmont ' country, as it is called, on the eastern slope of the 
range. There seemed to be a decided change as soon as we 
crossed the watershed — redder soil, much more cultivation of 
wheat and corn, less pasture — and what there is seems to be 
more made up of artificial grass. We kept on through the 
Piedmont country pretty near the hills, and much accented, 
and so continued till dark. In the evening the country seemed 
to be getting flatter. The hills are a good deal cleared in 
parts, but there is still a great deal of wood upon them. There 
were some good grazing grounds, and a good many cattle and 
horses on this eastern slope, but it is not so much a grazing 
country as that to the west. This country looks at the worst 
now, the grass being brown, the trees without leaves, and the 
fields ploughed up, but I dare say in the spring it merits the 
encomiums which the Virginians are in the habit of bestowing 
upon it. Throughout the route to-day the houses of the white 
inhabitants sermed better than those I had previously seen. 
They gave one the idea of pretty well-to-do farmers, and 
there were a good many houses which seemed quite up to the 
pretensions of small squireens, or gentleman-farmers. All 
along the route I noticed more blacks than I had expected to 
see in this higher country. Probably the vicinity of the rail- 
way accounts for that ; but even away from the railway sta- 
tions there seemed to be a good many black families, living in 
huts as miserable as those I had seen farther South. Prob- 
ably the blacks are mere labourers and dependents. 

The eating at the stations where we stopped for meals 
seemed always very tolerable, and I noticed that in this coun- 
try there is good fresh butter. I cannot understand why they 
cannot have it in the civilised North. Even at Washington 
in the best hotels and everywhere else they have nasty salt 
butter ; and at New York one or two people seem only re- 



THE KETUKN JOURXEY. 879 

cently to hare made quite a discovery by making good fresh 
butter, which they can sell at a dollar a pound, for it is a rarity. 

I slept at Washington, and spent most of the next day 
there. The weather was lovely, and the place bright and 
lively-looking. People are evidently beginning to assemble 
for the ensuing meeting of Congress, and one sees many smart, 
well-dressed women in the streets. The trees, however, have 
lost their leaves, which takes off from the beauty which I 
noticed in the place a few weeks ago. 

I went to the Treasury, where they kindly gave me the 
official papers on the silver question. It seems clear that up 
to 1873 silver was a complete legal tender, and that anyone 
might bring silver to be coined and get silver certificates at 

once. I went again to see my friend General E , of the 

Educational Department, and met at his office a Xew Hamp- 
shire member of Congress, who seemed shocked at the idea 
that I was going to take my Southern experiences as a spe- 
cimen of the United States. He insists that the Northern 
States are very different. There, he says, the township sys- 
tem is in full force — that is, in ]N"ew England — the people at 
large frequently meet together in Township Assembly to vote 
for school and other arrangements, and to control the expen- 
diture. Certainly I feel I have still to do Xew England, if I 
live and have another opportunity of visiting the States. 

I visited the Agricultural Department, and saw General 

D , the head of it, who is very enthusiastic over his work, 

though somehow there seem to be a good many scoffers about 
the Department. They have a capital -collection of all sorts 
of produce, and are now making great efforts to introduce 

useful plants and new products. General D hopes to 

acclimatise the bamboo. He is trying the Japanese variety, 
which stands frost. There seems no doubt that the tea-plant 
thrives in the Southern States; but people have not really 
learnt how to manufacture tea. The Liberian coffee is a va- 
riety of the coffee-plant, which, it seems, unlike the Arabian 
plant, will stand an ordinary tropical climate, and bears well, 
even down to the level of the sea, within the tropics. It struck 
me that in India we ought to take advantage of the experience 
of the United States — for instance, to obtain improved varieties 
of Indian corn and other plants. 

There was again a very good sunset to-day. Washington 
seems to have a specialty fur simsets. 



380 MY JOURNAL. 

In the evening I took passage in the sleeping-cars for 
New York. The Pullman was a good deal crowded, and 
a crowded Pullman is decidedly not comfortable. I met a 
great traveller who had spent twenty-eight nights in the cars 
during the last six weeks, and he confirms what I had sus- 
pected, that under such circumstances as we had this night it 
is a mistake to secure a lower berth. The upper berths, for 
those who can climb up, are much moi% airy and comfortable. 
This gentleman is a resident of the city of Mexico, which, he 
says, is a place of 250,000 inhabitants, and quite civilised. 

We reached New York in the morning. I again went to 
the Windsor. There are now a great many winter residents 
there, but the place is quite quiet. The weather in New 
York is not yet good winter weather. They have had it un- 
usually warm for the season, and it is now raw and rainy. 

I called on Mr. P , a gentleman to whom I owe much 

kindness, and went with him to the business part of the 
city — 4 down town,' as they call it. Here I had some talk 
with several good financial authorities on American railways. 
Their tone about them is generally unfavourable — the moral 
of the very safe men is that no shares are safe. They say 
that the capital value of the lines is generally in the books at 
a much higher figure than that at which they could now be 
made, and that the only safe things are the first bonds of the 
very best lines. These lines, they say, are at least worth the 
amount of the first bonds. According to them if the shares 
of a railway are above par then you may with tolerable pru- 
dence buy the first bonds, and that is all. The bonds are 
liable to be paid off after a certain time, but some of them 
run for as long as thirty years, and, as they say, that is much 
farther than anyone looks forward in this country. 

In the evening I dined with Mr. O , and met Gene- 
ral B a name well known in the war. He is a New 

Englander, from Rhode Island. He says that though, no 
doubt, as I had before been told, land in New England had 
fallen much in value, and some of it had gone out of culti- 
vation, there has been quite recently considerable signs of 
improvement in New England farming prospects, and a rise 
again in the value of the land, in consequence of many people 
who have been driven from commerce in the bad times having 
come back to the land. He, too, says that many Irish have 
bought land in New England, and they do not do badly. He 



THE RETURN JOURNEY. 881 

gives the same account as I had heard before of the good 
working of the New England township system. He says 
there are not usually any commons, only village greens ; but 
he knows some instances of considerable common pastures 
which were originally reserved. One or two still remain ; 
others have been divided up or sold by a vote of the town- 
ship. It seems clear that in America commons are quite 
exceptional, and not the habit of the country. 

The people whom I meet here dwell much on the effect 
of the Southern election practices, and the attempt to make a 
solid South, in producing a solid Korth on the other side of 
the question. 

Mr. , who has had much experience of the States 

on the Mississippi, gives an account of them which tallies 
pretty well with what I had already learned. He says the 
relations between the whites and blacks are ordinarily good 
enough, and they would get on sufficiently well together if it 
were not for political difficulties, which in Mississippi and 
Louisiana are considerable. The blacks make capital la- 
bourers. His experience is that on Southern railwa}^ he 
gets more work done for sixty cents than for a dollar in the 
Isorth. He has had much railway experience in several 
States in which he has had occasion to get Bills passed and 
various measures sanctioned. I asked him about the honesty 
of the local Legislatures. He says some new States have 
been rather bad, but that for some years in the States through 
which his lines passed they have not been approached for 
money. The effect of the provision in the Illinois Consti- 
tution against special legislation in favour of corporations 
has really been considerable. The law is carried out in 'prac- 
tice. People who want privileges can only get tlfem under 
the general laws applicable to all. I have not yet looked up 
the particulars as to the way in which these things are 
managed in Illinois and other States ; but in Georgia, where 
they have a provision of the same kind, I understand that the 
general laws for the granting of charters and the like having 
been passed, people who want them apply to the Courts which 

adjudicate the question. Mr. O says there is still more 

planting on a large scale in Mississippi and the adjoining 
countries than in the Atlantic States, and he instances people 
who, he says, are there doing well, cultivating on a large scale 
with hired negro labour. The lands near the river in Missis- 



382 MY JOUKNAL. 

sippi are very fertile and good, and there is a large popu- 
lation; but in the central part of the State, where the 
railways run, the land is inferior, and the population scat- 
tered. In Louisiana the good sugar-cane lands are in the 
extreme south, and outside of the swamp and forest belt — 
apparently in a tract corresponding in situation to the Sea 
Islands of the Atlantic coast. Mr. O is very enthusi- 
astic, and determined to make the railway connecting North 
and South, in the Yalley of the Mississippi pay. He has 
great faith in the necessity of a North and South traffic. 
Food-stuffs must necessarily come from North to South, and 
sugar, fruit, and other things, from South to North. Below 
Cairo the traffic is principally by river, but then it is an 
enormous traffic ; they w T ould be content if they got one- 
tenth of it on the railway. 

The next day I visited some of the sights of New York 

with Mr. O . We went to the ' Fulton ' market, one of 

the principal markets in New York, where the supply of 
game, poultry, &c, for ' Thanksgiving Day,' which is to 
come off to-morrow, is enormous, and the variety exceedingly 
great. The ' Thanksgiving Day ' was a New England insti- 
tution, to commemorate the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
It gradually extended to the neighbouring States, and to 
those of the North-West ; and after the war President Lin- 
coln made it a national holiday, though I daresay the South- 
erners heartily wish that the Pilgrim Fathers had gone to 
the bottom of the sea before they ever landed at all. How- 
ever, now ' Thanksgiving Day ' seems to be the great family 
feast of the year. In the market there was a very great 
quantity of American game. Wild turkeys are quite com- 
mon, and immense, large, fine birds they are. The quail 
(whether they are quail or partridge) are in immense profu- 
sion. I also found in this market English pheasants, grouse, 
and hares, imported from Europe. They also import here 
the common white European grapes which we see on our 
fruit-stalls. We lunched at a famous restaurant in the mar- 
ket. Ladies frequently go there alone. That is not contrary 
to custom here. A dish of rabbit was specially recommended, 
and I tried the American rabbit. There is generally a preju- 
dice against eating it. Most people of the higher class will 
not eat rabbit, though they eat squirrels. Rabbits, however, 
are for sale everywhere. I did not think my rabbit particu- 



THE BETUE^ JOITENEY. 383 

larly good. It is not very like one of onr own. The flesh 
seemed to be darker and softer. 

In the evening I dined with Mr. P , and met some 

pleasant people. We had a good deal of talk about New 
York politics. Mr. Cooper, a man of the highest position 
and character, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of 
making, is Mayor-elect of New York. It is a very great step 
in advance to have a man of his character in the place. He 
is a bright and clever man, of large independent means, and 
above all suspicion of jobbery and corruption. The taxation 
of New York is certainly heavy. At present the tax for city 
and county purposes is two dollars and seventy cents upon 
capital value. . The port charges are also heavy. Heavy 
taxation and charges do a great deal to drive trade to other 
ports. Real property is said to be fully assessed ; in fact, 
they say that since the shrinkage of values it is more than 
fully assessed. The heavy taxation is the cause of the high 
rents. Rents are higher here than in London, but then the 
owner pays the taxes, not the occupier. Personal property is 
taxed ; nominally at any rate ; but I have not yet been able 
to get anything reliable regarding the assessment of personal 
property ; how it is really made and how far it is evaded. I 
understand a man is not required to make a return of his 
personal property unless he chooses. He is assessed at the 
amount at which he is estimated by the assessor, and if he 
objects he has to prove that the assessment is wrong. I 
gather that in truth a comparatively small amount of personal 
property is assessed in New York. I understand that prac- 
tically a man with more houses or offices than one may elect 
where he will be taxed upon property which is not local. For 
instance, a man with a large property in foreign Funds might 
keep his securities in a place where taxation is light, and be 
taxed upon them there, supposing that in reality he is taxed 
upon them at all. It might, in fact, be economical to keep a 
country house for the deposit of his securities. Perhaps, 
however, there is not much personal property of this kind. 
United States bonds are exempt from taxation, and railways 
are taxed before the dividends are paid. 

In New York politics it is the Catholic element which 
causes most of the difficulties — that is felt more in New York 
City than anywhere else. The bad pavement of the streets ar> 
many other evils are attributed to the excessive corruption 



384 MY JOURNAL. 

wliicli lias distinguished the Administration of the city. Here 
also there seem to be quite as many complaints against the 
prisons as with us. They say that many rogues spend most 
of their lives in prison. The New York papers seem to be 
now very generally writing against the liquor laws of 1857, 
which were, in fact, imposed upon the city by the three mil- 
lion country people of the State, and are much more restric- 
tive than the city people like. There is a Sunday-closing law, 
and an attempt to confine the sale of liquor to bona fide hotels 
with a certain number of beds, and so on. But in this respect 
the law is quite evaded — two or three beds are set up in pub- 
lic-houses as a mere make-believe. 

I have not had time to see anything of New York winter 
society or of the fashionable people. I do not see so many 
signs of wealth as I had expected to see in this famous city, 
nor do I observe so many smart and elegantly dressed ladies 
in the streets as I had rather expected to find, after all one 
has heard of the dressy elegance of the American ladies. But 
then the weather is unfavourable, and perhaps American 
ladies are not so much given to walking as ours are. How- 
ever, as New England remains to be seen another day, so also 
I hope to see something more of New York and Philadelphia, 
and the country parts of these States, if I return to America. 
Meantime, before I turned back I had completed the object 
for which I was so anxious — to see something of the relations 
between whites and blacks in the Southern States ; and hav- 
ing done that and completed a visit which I have much en- 
joyed, I am now content to conclude it, and to trust to the 
chance of seeing more another day. 

In the morning I embarked early in the Republic, a 
steamer of the White Star line, not so large as the Germanic, 
but still a fine vessel. While the steamer was hauling out for 
the start I was interviewed by a reporter of the ' New York 
Herald ' regarding Afghanistan. We soon got off and were 
fairly on the homeward voyage. There are few passengers at 
this season of the year, and scarcely one of these American. 
This is not the season when Americans visit Europe. 

I have been talking with some gentlemen on board about 
the beef trade. It seems that, dead or living, it costs about 
a penny a pound to send beef to England. The live cattle 
are as yet almost all brought over on deck. They are nailed 
up in tight narrow pens, in which they stand and cannot lie 



THE RETURN JOURNEY. 385 

down They are said to gain flesh on board if the weather is 
good, but in bad weather they are sometimes almost all lost. 
They are knocked about, and it becomes necessary to throw 
them over. Vessels are now being constructed to carry cattle 
under cover. As regards dead meat they can carry about 
sixty tons of meat in a 300-ton chamber, specially fitted for 
the purpose. They bring over whole sides, hung up in the 
chamber — not the choice pieces only. They seal up this 
chamber and refrigerate it. On the return voyage the cham- 
ber is opened and the space used for any other cargo. 

On the voyage home the vessels go south of the Xew- 
foundland Banks, running due east for the first thousand 
miles, after which they turn north-east. The first four days 
we had good weather, and we should have had it all the way 
at this season. It is commonly said that at this season of the 
year the voyage home is ' down hill ; ' but as ill luck would 
have it we had to encounter a strong easterly gale, which 
much retarded us, and caused the loss of a whole day. The 
voyage to Queenstown occupied upwards of nine days. 
25 



386 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 



STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

I have been looking over some of the past and present 
Constitutions of some of the States, as set forth in the 
8 Charters and Constitutions of the United States,' by Poor, 
in two large volumes. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Under the original Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 
there was to be complete religious toleration ; but all 
townships were bound to keep up Protestant ministers of 
religion. There was equality among Protestant sects ; for 
though every man was bound to pay a church-tax, he might 
pay to the minister of his own sect, if there were any in the 
township ; if not, then to the common minister. People 
were bound to attend church, and in some of the New 
England States church membership was necessary to the 
exercise of the franchise. The original franchise-law in 
Massachusetts required a property qualification of 31. per 
annum. The ' select men ' of towns and all representatives 
and officials were bound to make oath of belief in the Chris- 
tian religion. 

By an amendment passed in 1822 the suffrage was given 
to all adult males who have resided and paid taxes, and the 
oath of office was altered so as to exclude the declaration of 
religious belief. 

In 1833 the obligation to support Protestant ministers was 
abolished, and henceforth every Christian sect was at liberty 
to elect their own ministers, and to do as they like. 

By an amendment passed in 1857 the franchise is restricted 
to those who can read in the English language and write their 
names, and that is the still existing rule. 

The Constitution of Massachusetts has not been materially 



VIRGINIA. 387 

changed since the war. All hereditary privileges are for- 
bidden. Liberty of the press, the free right of all citizens to 
the possession of arms, and the free right of assembly are 
guaranteed. The Legislature consists of a Senate of 40, and 
a House of Representatives of 240 members, both elected ^by 
the people. The Governor has a veto, unless overruled by 
a two-thirds vote in each House. Office-holders are not 
allowed to sit in the Legislature. The Executive power is 
vested in an elected Governor and an Executive Council of 
eight persons whose advice is necessary for the doing of 
certain things. Judges and other judicial officers are appointed 
by the Governor and Council. The Judges are to hold during 
good behaviour, unless it is otherwise prescribed by law. The 
Justices of the Peace are appointed for seven years, and are 
eligible for reappointment. The University of Harvard is 
established and endowed by the Constitution, and there is a 
general provision enjoining the encouragement of education. 
No moneys raised for education are to be given to any parti- 
cular religious sect. 



VIRGINIA. 

Every edition of the Constitution of Virginia, including the 
last now in force, commences with the old recital of grievances 
on account of ' the detestable and insupportable tyranny ' of 
George III., who had sought to destroy the liberties of the 
people in many ways, and among others ' by prompting our 
negroes to rise in arms among us — those very negroes whom 
by an inhuman use of his negative he had refused us per- 
mission to exclude by law ; by endeavouring to bring on the 
inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages,' and 
so on. 

Then comes the Bill of Rights, consisting of seventeen 
articles adopted in 1776 and live more added since the civil 
war. Most of the State Constitutions seem to retain the 
Bill of Rights, in a more or less modernised form, as a sort of 
inner kernel of the Constitution. Here is the present Vir- 
ginian Bill of Rights, which retains the old articles and 
language. The modern portions are printed in italics ;-— 



388 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 



BILL OF RIGHTS. 

A Declaration of Rights, made by the Representatives of the 
good people of Virginia, assembled hi full and free Conven- 
tion, lohich rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as 
the basis and foundation of government. 

1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, 
and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into 
a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest 
their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with 
the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing 
and obtaining happiness and safety. 

2. That this State shall ever remain a member of the United 
States of America, and that the people thereof are part of the 
American nation, and that all attempts, from whatever source 
or upon whatever pretext, to dissolve said Union or to sever said 
nation, are unauthorised, and ought to be resisted with the whole 
potcer of the State. 

3. That the Constitution of the United States, and laws of 
Congress passed in pursuance thereof, constitute the supreme law 
of the land, to which paramount allegiance and obedience are 
due from every citizen, anything in the Constitution, ordinances, 
or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

4. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, 
the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and 
at all times amenable to them. 

5. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the 
common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, 
or community; of all the various modes and forms of govern- 
ment, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest de- 
gree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured 
against the danger of maladministration; and that when any 
government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these pur- 
poses, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalien- 
able, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such 
a, manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. 

6. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or 
separate emoluments or privileges from the community but in 
consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, 
neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be 
hereditary. 

7. That the legislative, executive, and judicial powers should 
be separate and distinct; and that the members thereof may be 



VIRGINIA. 389 

restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the bur- 
thens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to 
a private station, return into that body from which they were 
originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, 
certain, and regular elections, in which all or any part of the 
former members to be again eligible or ineligible, as the laws 
shall direct. 

8. That all elections ought to be free, and that all men, hav- 
ing sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and 
attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and 
cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses, 
without their own consent, or that of their representatives so 
elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not in like 
manner assented for the public good. 

9. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of 
laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives 
of the people, is injurious to their rights and not to be exercised. 

10. That, in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath 
a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be 
confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence 
in his favour, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his 
vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found 
guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; 
that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the 
land or the judgment of his peers. 

11. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor exces- 
sive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. 

12. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger 
may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence 
of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, 
or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by 
evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be 
granted. 

13. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits 
between man and man, the trial by jury is preferable to any 
other, and ought to be held sacred. 

14. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bul- 
warks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic 
governments, and any citizen may speak, write, and publish his 
sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that 
liberty. 

15. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of 
the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe de- 
fence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, 
should be avoided as dangerous to liberty, and that in all cases 



390 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed 
by, the civil power. 

16. That the people have a right to uniform government; and, 
therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, 
the Government of Virginia ought to be erected or established 
within the limits thereof. 

17. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can 
be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, 
moderation, temperance, and virtue, and by a frequent recur- 
rence to fundamental principles. 

18. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, 
and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by rea- 
son and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, all 
men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion accord- 
ing to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty 
of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards 
each other. 

19. That neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as 
lawful imprisonment may constitute such, shall exist within this 
State. 

20. TIi at all citizens of the State are hereby declared to possess 
equal civil and political rights and public privileges. 

21. Tlie rights enumerated in this Bill of Rights shall not be 
construed to limit other rigJits of the jieople not therein expressed. 

The declaration of the political rights and privileges of the 
inhabitants of this State is hereby declared to be a part of the 
Constitution of this Commonwealth, and shall not be violated 
on any pretence whatever. 



Up to 1850 the franchise was confined to whites, with a 
property qualification. In 1850 the property qualification was 
given up, and all adult white males obtained the franchise. 
By provisions added in the same year no emancipated negroes 
were permitted to remain in the State ; or, if they did, they 
were liable to be again reduced to slavery. The Legislature 
was for ever forbidden to emancipate any slave, or the descend- 
ant of any slave ; and it was empowered to restrict by law the 
power of individuals to emancipate slaves. 

By the post- War Constitution, put in force in 1870, all 
disqualifications of negroes are swept away— the franchise is 
given to all classes, without any property or other qualifica- 
tion. But there is in this and other Southern States a pro^ 
vision disqualifying all persons convicted of fighting a duel 
from voting or holding office ; besides the disqualification to 



VIEGINIA. 391 

vote of all persons convicted of felony or petit larceny. The 
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are elected by the people 
for four years; but the Secretary of the Commonwealth, 
Treasurer, and. Auditor are elected by joint vote of the two 
Houses. The Senators and Delegates (members of the Lower 
House) are elected for four and two years respectively. The 
Legislature meets once in two years, and remains in session 
not more than ninety days, unless it is extended, by a three- 
fifths vote, for not more than thirty days longer. That is the 
utmost limit. 

The Judges are elected by joint vote of the Houses of the 
Legislature for twelve, eight, and six years, according to the 
class of Judge. The county and city officers, i. e. Sheriff, 
Mayor, Attorney for the Commonwealth, County Clerk, County 
Treasurer, and so many County Commissioners of Revenue as 
may be provided by law, are elected by the people for four or 
six years ; and all city, town, and village officers not specially 
provided for are to be similarly elected. Counties are divided 
into magisterial districts, each of which is to have three jus- 
tices of the peace, a constable, and an overseer of the poor, 
elected for two years. There is now a regular provision for 
education. Each magisterial district is divided into school 
districts. The Legislature is required to provide a uniform 
system of free public schools, to be complete by the year 1876, 
and is authorised to make such laws as shall not permit parents 
and guardians to allow their children to grow up in ignorance 
and vagrancy. There is to be a literary fund, made up of the 
proceeds of all forfeited or waste lands, a capitation tax, and an 
annual tax on all property, of not less than one, or more than 
five, mills, in the dollar (that is, on the capital value). 

The militia consists of all able-bodied men; but only 
volunteer corps are classed as ' active militia,' the rest as 
fc reserved militia.' 

Taxation is to be equally imposed on all property, and a 
tax may be imposed on incomes in excess of $600, and on 
licenses for the sale of ardent spirits, theatrical and circus 
companies, menageries and other shows, itinerant pedlers, 
commission merchants, brokers, and on all other business 
which cannot be reached by the ad valorem system. All 
public, charitable, religious, and educational property may be 
exempted from the property-tax. 

A curious instance of the way in which minor matters 



392 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

are sometimes mixed up with greater ones in these Consti- 
tutions is a provision that no tax shall be imposed on any 
citizen for the privilege of taking oysters, but the sale of 
oysters may be taxed. 

No debt shall be incurred by the State except to meet 
casual deficits, to redeem previous liabilities, to repress in- 
surrection, or to defend the State in time of war (rather 
wide and elastic provisions) ; and every debt incurred must be 
accompanied by provision for a sinking fund. 

Payments of debts incurred by the usurping authorities 
during the war is strictly forbidden. The credit of the State 
is not to be granted to any person or corporation. The 
State is not to subscribe to any company, nor to be a party to 
any work of internal improvement, nor to engage in carrying 
on any such work. 

The homestead privilege extends to the value of $2,000 
of real or personal property, but this shall not interfere with 
sale of the property in virtue of a mortgage. The Legis- 
lature is to pass laws regarding the setting apart and holding 
homesteads in future. 



ILLINOIS. 

The Constitution of Illinois is supposed to be a model of 
modern wisdom. Some distinguished Englishmen have, I 
believe, taken part in moulding it to its present shape, and 
much philosophy and learning have been bestowed on it. 

Under the original Constitution of 1818 every adult white 
male had the suffrage, but blacks were excluded both from the 
suffrage and from the militia. 

Under the amended Constitution of 1848 the Legislature 
was authorised to make laws to prohibit persons of colour 
from immigrating into the State. 

It was not till 1870 that all colour distinctions were 
abolished. 

By the original Constitution, sect. 16 of every township 
(that is, one mile square) was set apart for education, and 
a whole township was granted for the support of a seminary 
of higher learning. The United States also agreed to set 
apart for education 5 per cent, of the price of all public lands 
sold within the limits of the State. . . 



Illinois. 393 

The present Constitution is that of 1870. It is rather 
long, but I append all the essential parts of it, omitting 
only those which are not of general interest and importance. 
It may, I think, be of interest to my readers to see the most 
improved form of an American State Constitution. It com- 
mences with a Bill of Rights, laying down general principles 
in a modernised form ; but as in their general effect these 
are not radically different from the Virginian Bill of Bights, 
which I have already given, I omit this part of the Illinois 
Constitution. For the rest I leave it to speak for itself : — 



CONSTITUTION OF 1870. 

Adopted in Convention May 13, 1870; ratified by the people 
July 2, 1870; in force August 8,'l870. 

Preamble. — We, the people of the State of Illinois — grate- 
ful to Almighty God for the civil, political, and religious liberty 
which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to 
Him for a blessing upon our endeavours to secure and transmit 
the same unimpaired to succeeding generations — in order to form 
a more perfect government, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the State 
of Illinois. 

ARTICLE III. 

DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. 

The powers of the government of this state are divided into 
three distinct departments — the legislative, executive, and judi- 
cial; and no person, or collection of persons, being one of these 
departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to 
either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly directed or 
permitted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. 

§ 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a general assem- 
bly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives, 
both to be elected by the people. 



39 1 STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 



ELECTION. 

§ 2. An election for members of the general assembly shall 
be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, 
in the year of our Lord 1870, and every two years thereafter, in 
each county, at such places therein as may be provided by law. 
When vacancies occur in either house, the governor, or person 
exercising the powers of governor, shall issue writs of election to 
fill such vacancies. 



ELIGIBILITY. 

§ 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have at- 
tained the age of twenty-five years, or a representative who shall 
not have attained the age of twenty-one years. No person shall be 
a senator or representative who shall not be a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not have been for five years a resident of 
this state, and for two years next preceding- his election a res- 
ident within the territory forming the district from which he is 
elected. No judge or clerk of any court, secretary of state, at- 
torney-general, state's attorney, recorder, sheriff, or collector of 
public revenue, member of either house of congress, or person 
holding any lucrative office underthe United States or this state, 
or any foreign government, shall have a seat in the general as- 
sembly : Provided, that appointments in the militia, and the 
offices of notary public and justice of the peace, shall not be con- 
sidered lucrative. Nor shall any person, holding any office of 
honour or profit under any foreign government, or under the 
government of the United States (except postmasters whose an- 
nual compensation does not exceed the sum of $300), hold any 
office of honour or profit under the authority of this State. 

§ 4. No person who has been, or hereafter shall be, convicted 
of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime, nor any person who 
has been or may be a collector or holder of public moneys, who 
shall not have accounted for and paid over, according to law, all 
such moneys due from him, shall be eligible to the general as- 
sembly, or to any office of profit or trust in this state. 

APPORTIONMENT SENATORIAL. 

§ 6. The general assembly shall apportion the state every ten 
years, beginning with the year 1871, by dividing the population 
of the state, as ascertained by the federal census, by the number 
51, and the quotient shall be the ratio of representation in the 



Illinois. 395 

senate. The state shall be divided into 51 senatorial districts, 
each of which shall elect one senator, whose term of office shall 
be four years. The senators elected in the year of our Lord 
1872, in districts bearing odd numbers, shall vacate their offices 
at the end of two years, and those elected in districts bearing 1 
even numbers, at the end of four years; and vacancies occurring 
by the expiration of term, shall be filled by the election of sena- 
tors for the full term. Senatorial districts shall be formed of 
contiguous and compact territory, bounded by county lines, and 
contain, as nearly as practicable, an equal number of inhabitants; 
but no district shall contain less than four-fifths of the senatorial 
ratio. Counties containing not less than the ratio and three- 
fourths, may be divided into separate districts, and shall be en- 
titled to two senators, and to one additional senator for each 
number of inhabitants equal to the ratio contained by such coun- 
ties in excess of twice the number of said ratio. 



MINORITY REPRESENTATION. 

§§ 7 and 8. The house of representatives shall consist of 
three times the number of the members of the senate, and the term 
of office shall be two years. Three representatives shall be elected 
in each senatorial district at the general election in the year of 
our Lord 1872, and every two years thereafter. In all elections 
of representatives aforesaid, each qualified voter may cast as 
many votes for one candidate as there are representatives to be 
elected, or may distribute the same, or equal parts thereof, among 
the candidates, as he shall see fit; and the candidates highest in 
votes shall be declared elected. 



TIME OF MEETING AND GENERAL RULES. 

§ 9. The sessions of the general assembly shall commence at 
twelve o'clock noon, on the Wednesday next after the first Mon- 
day in January, in the year next ensuing the election of mem- 
bers thereof, and at no other time, unless as provided by this 
constitution. A majority of the members elected to each house 
shall constitute a quorum. Each house shall determine the rules 
of its proceedings, and be the judge of the election returns and 
qualifications of its members; shall choose its own officers; and 
the senate shall choose a temporary president to preside when 
the lieutenant-governor shall not attend as president or shall act 
as governor. The secretary of state shall call the house of rep- 
resentatives to order at the opening of each new assembly, and 



396 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

preside over it until a temporary presiding officer thereof shall 
have been chosen and shall have taken his seat. No member 
shall be expelled by either house except by a vote of two-thirds 
of all the members elected to that house, and no member shall 
be twice expelled for the same offence. Each house may punish, 
by imprisonment, any person not a member, who shall be guilty 
of disrespect to the house by disorderly or contemptuous be- 
haviour in its presence. But no such imprisonment shall ex- 
tend beyond twenty-four hours at one time, unless the person 
shall persist in such disorderly or contemptuous behaviour. 

§ 10. The doors of each house, and of committees of the 
-whole, shall be kept open, except in such cases as, in the opinion 
of the house, require secrecy. Neither house shall, without the 
consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days, or to any 
other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. 
Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall be 
published. In the senate at the request of two members, and in 
the house at the request of five members, the yeas and nays shall 
be taken on any question, and entered upon the journal. Any 
two members of either house shall have liberty to dissent from 
and protest, in respectful language, against any act or resolution 
which they think injurious to the public or to any individual, 
and have the reasons of their dissent entered upon the journals. 



STYLE OF LAWS AND PASSAGE OF BILLS. 

§ 11. The style of the laws of this state shall be: " JBe it 
enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the 
General Assembly." 

§ 12. Bills may originate in either house, but may be altered, 
amended or rejected by the other; and on the final passage of 
all bills, the vote shall be by yeas and nays, upon each bill 
separately, and shall be entered upon the journal; and no bill 
shall become a law without the concurrence of a majority of the 
members elected to each house. 

§ 13. Every bill shall be read at large on three different days, 
in each house; and the bill and all amendments thereto shall be 
printed before the vote is taken on its final passage; and every 
bill, having passed both houses, shall be signed by the speakers 
thereof. No act hereafter passed shall embrace more than one 
subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. But if any 
subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed 
in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof as 
shall not be so expressed; and no law shall be revived or amended 



ILLINOIS. 397 

by reference to its title only, but the law revived, or the section 
amended, shall be inserted at length in the new act. And no 
act of the general assembly shall take effect until the first day 
of July next after its passage, unless, in case of emergency 
(which emergency shall be expressed in the preamble or body of 
the act), the general assembly shall, by a vote of two-thirds of 
all the members elected to each house, otherwise direct. 



DISABILITIES. 

§ 15. No person elected to the general assembly shall receive 
any civil appointment within this state from the governor, the 
governor and senate, or from the general assembly, during the 
term for which he shall have been elected; and all such appoint- 
ments, and all votes given for any such members for any such 
office or appointment, shall be void; nor shall any member of 
the general assembly be interested, either directly or indirectly, 
in any contract with the state, or any county thereof, authorised 
by any law passed during the term for which he shall have been 
elected, or within one year after the expiration thereof. 



PUBLIC MONEYS AXD APPROPRIATIONS. 

§ 16. The general assembly shall make no appropriation of 
money out of the treasury in any private law. Bills making ap- 
propriations for the pay of members and officers of the general 
assembly, and for the salaries of the officers of the government, 
shall contain no provision on any other subject. 

§ 17. No money shall be drawn from the treasury except in 
pursuance of an appropriation made by law, and on the presen- 
tation of a warrant issued by the auditor thereon; and no money 
shall be diverted from any appropriation made for any purpose, 
or taken from any fund whatever, either by joint or separate 
resolution. The auditor shall, within sixty days after the ad- 
journment of each session of the general assembly, prepare and 
publish a full statement of all money expended at such session, 
specifying the amount of each item, and to whom and for what 
paid. 

§ 18. Each general assembly shall provide for all the appro- 
priations necessary for the ordinary and contingent expenses of 
the government until the expiration of the first fiscal quarter after 
the adjournment of the next regular session, the aggregate 
amount of which shall not be increased without a vote of two- 



398 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

thirds of the members elected to each house, nor exceed the 
amount of revenue authorised by law to be raised in such time; 
and all appropriations, general or special, requiring- money to be 
paid out of the state treasury, from funds belonging to the 
state, shall end with such fiscal quarter: Provided, the state 
may, to meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, contract 
debts, never to exceed in the aggregate $250,000; and moneys 
thus borrowed shall be applied to the purpose for which they 
were obtained, or to pay the debt thus created, and to no other 
purpose; and no other debt, except for the purpose of repelling 
invasion, suppressing insurrection, or defending the state in war 
(for payment of which the faith of the state shall be pledged), 
shall be contracted, unless the law authorising the same shall, at 
a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have 
received a majority of the votes cast for members of the general 
assembly at such election. The general assembly shall provide 
for the publication of said law for three months at least before 
the vote of the people shall be taken upon the same; and provi- 
sion shall be made, at the time, for the payment of the interest 
annually, as it shall accrue, by a tax levied for the purpose or 
from other sources of revenue; which law, providing for the pay- 
ment of such interest, by such tax, shall be irrepealable until 
such debt be paid: And, provided, further, that the law levying 
the tax shall be submitted to the people with the law authorising 
the debt to be contracted. 

§ 19. The general assembly shall never grant or authorise 
extra compensation, fee or allowance to any public officer, agent, 
servant or contractor, after service has been rendered or a con- 
tract made, nor authorise the payment of any claim, or part 
thereof, hereafter created against the state under any agreement 
or contract made without express authority of law; and all such 
unauthorised agreements or contracts shall be null and void: 
Prodded, the general .assembly may make appropriations for 
expenditures incurred in suppressing insurrection or repelling 
invasion. 

§ 20. The state shall never pa}% assume or become responsible 
for the debts or liabilities of, or in any manner give, loan, or ex- 
tend its credit to or in aid of any public or other corporation, 
association, or individual. 

PAY OF MEMBERS. 

§ 21. The members of the general assembly shall receive for 
their services the sum of $5 per. day, during the first session 
held under this constitution, and 10 cents for each mile neces- 



* ILLINOIS. 399 

sarily travelled in going to and returning from the seat of gov- 
ernment, to be computed by the auditor of public accounts; and 
thereafter such compensation as shall be prescribed by law, and no 
other allowance or emolument, directly or indirectly, for any pur- 
pose whatever, except the sum of $50 per session to each mem- 
ber, which shall be in full for postage, stationery, newspapers 
and all other incidental expenses and perquisites; but no change 
shall be made in the compensation of members of the general 
assembly during the term for which they may have been elected. 
The pay and mileage allowed to each member of the general as- 
sembly shall be certified by the speaker of their respective houses, 
and entered on the journals and published at the close of each 
session. 

* SrECIAL LEGISLATION PROHIBITED. 

§ 22. The general assembly shall not pass local or special laws 
in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: for — 

Granting divorces; 

Changing the names of persons or places; 

Laying out, opening, altering and working roads or highways; 

Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys and public grounds; 

Locating or changing county seats; 

Regulating county and township affairs; 

Regulating the practice in courts of justice; 

Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the 
peace, police magistrates and constables; 

Providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal cases; 

Incorporating cities, towns or villages, or changing or amend- 
ng the charter of any town, city or village; 

Providing for the election of members of the board of super- 
visors in townships, incorporated towns or cities; 

Summoning and impanelling grand or petit juries; 

Providing for the management of common schools; 

Regulating the rate of interest on money; 

The opening and conducting of any election, or designating 
the place of voting; 

The sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors or 
others under disability; 

The protection of game or fish; 

Chartering or licensing ferries or toll bridges; 

Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; 

Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentage or allow- 
ances of public officers, during the term for which said officers 
axe elected or appointed; 



400 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

Changing the law of descent; 

Granting to any corporation, association or individual the 
right to lay down railroad tracks, or amending existing charters 
for such purpose; 

Granting to any corporation, association or individual any 
special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. 

In all other cases where a general law can be made applica- 
ble, no special law shall be enacted-. 

§ 23. The general assembly shall have no power to release or 
extinguish, in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or 
obligation of any corporation or individual to this state or to 
any municipal corporation therein. 



IMPEACHMENT. 

§ 24. The house of representatives shall have the sole power 
of impeachment; but a majority of all the members elected 
must concur therein. All impeachments shall be tried by the 
senate; and when sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be 
upon oath, or affirmation, to do justice according to law and 
evidence. When the governor of the state is tried, the chief 
justice shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the 
concurrence of two-thirds of the senators elected. But judg- 
ment, in such cases, shall not extend further than removal from 
office, and disqualification to hold any office of honour, profit or 
trust under the government of this state. The party, whether 
convicted or acquitted, shall, nevertheless, be liable to prosecu- 
tion, trial, judgment and punishment according to law. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

§ 26. The state of Illinois shall never be made defendant in 
any court of law or equity. 

§ 27. The general assembly shall have no power to authorise 
lotteries or gift enterprises for any purpose, and shall pass laws 
to prohibit the sale of lottery or gift enterprise tickets in this 
state. 

§ 28. No law shall be passed which shall operate to extend 
the term of any public officer after his election or appointment. 

§ 29. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to pass 
such laws as may be necessary for the protection of operative 
miners, by providing for ventilation, when the same may be re- 
quired, and the construction of escapement-shafts, or such other 



ILLINOIS. 401 

appliances as may secure safety in all coal mines, and to provide 
for the enforcement of said laws by such penalties and punish- 
ments as may be deemed proper. 

§ 30. The general assembly may provide for establishing and 
opening roads and cartways, connected with a public road, for 
private and public use. 

§ 31. The general assembly may pass laws permitting the 
owners or occupants of lands to construct drains and ditches, 
for agricultural and sanitary purposes, across the lands of others. 

§ 32. The general assembly shall pass liberal homestead and 
exemption laws. 

ARTICLE V. 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 

§ 1. The executive department shall consist of a governor, 
lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of public ac- 
counts, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, and 
attorney-general, who shall, each, with the exception of the 
treasurer, hold his office for the term of four years from the 
second Monday of January next after his election, and until his 
successor is elected and qualified. They shall, except the lieu- 
tenant-governor, reside at the seat of government during their 
term of office, and keep the public records, books and papers 
there, and shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by 
law. 

§ 2. The treasurer shall hold his office for the term of two 
years, and until his successor is elected and qualified, and shall 
be ineligible to said office for two years next after the end of 
the term for which he was elected. He may be required by the 
governor to give reasonable additional security, and in default 
of so doing his office shall be deemed vacant. 

ELECTION. 

§ 3. An election for governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary 
of state, auditor of public accounts, and attorney-general, shall 
be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, 
in the year of our Lord 1872, and every four years thereafter; 
for superintendent of public instruction, on the Tuesday next 
after the first Monday of November, in the year 1870, and every 
four years thereafter; and for treasurer on the day last above 
mentioned, and every two years thereafter, at such places and 
in such manner as may be prescribed by law. 
26 



402 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 



ELIGIBILITY. 

§ 5. No person shall be eligible to the office of governor, or 
lieutenant-governor, who shall not have attained the age of 
thirty years, and been, for five years next preceding his election, 
a citizen of the United States and of this state. Neither the 
governor, lieutenant-governor, auditor of public accounts, secre- 
tary of state, superintendent of public instruction nor attorney- 
general shall be eligible to any other office during the period for 
which he shall have been elected. 



GOVEENOE. 

§ 6. The supreme executive power shall be vested in the 
governor, who shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. 

§ 7. The governor, shall, at the commencement of each ses- 
sion, and at the close of his term of office, give to the general 
assembly information, by message, of the condition of the state, 
and shall recommend such measures as he shall deem expedient. 
He shall account to the general assembly, and accompany his 
message with a statement of all moneys received and paid out 
by him from any funds subject to his order, with vouchers, and 
at the commencement of each regular session, present estimates 
of the amount of money required to be raised by taxation for all 
purposes. 

§ 8. The governor may, on extraordinary occasions, convene 
the general assembly, by proclamation, stating therein the pur- 
pose for which they are convened; and the general assembly 
shall enter upon no business except that for which they were 
called together. 

§ 9. In case of a disagreement between the two houses, with 
respect to the time of adjournment, the governor may, on the 
same being certified to him, by the house first moving the ad- 
journment, adjourn the general assembly to such time as he 
thinks proper, not beyond the first day of the next regular ses- 
sion. 

§ 10. The governor shall nominate, and by and with the 
advice and consent of the senate (a majority of all the senators 
selected concurring, by yeas and nays), appoint all officers whose 
offices are established by this constitution, or which may be 
created by law, and whose appointment or election is not other- 
wise provided for; and no such officer shall be appointed or 
elected by the general assembly. 

§ 11. In case of a vacancy, during the recess of the senate, 



ILLINOIS. 403 

in any office which is not elective, the governor shall make a 
temporary appointment until the next meeting of the senate, 
when he shall nominate some person to fill such office; and any 
person so nominated, who is confirmed by the senate (a majority 
of all the senators elected concurring by yeas and nays), shall 
hold his office during the remainder of the term, and until his 
successor shall be appointed and qualified. No person, after 
being rejected by the senate, shall be again nominated for the 
same office at the same session, unless at the request of the 
senate, or be appointed to the same office during the recess of 
the general assembly. 

§ 12. The governor shall have power to remove any officer 
whom he may appoint, in case of incompetency, neglect of duty, 
or malfeasance in office; and he may declare his office vacant, 
and fill the same as is herein provided in other cases of vacancy. 

§ 13. The governor shall have power to grant reprieves, com- 
mutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offences, subject 
to such regulations as may be provided by law relative to the 
manner of applying therefor. 

§ 14. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the mili- 
tary and naval forces of the state (except when they shall be 
called into the service of the United States), and may call out 
the same to execute the laws, suppress insurrection, and repel 
invasion. 

§ 15. The governor, and all civil officers of this state, shall 
be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office. 



VETO. 

§ 16. Every bill passed by the general assembly shall, before 
it becomes a law, be presented to the governor. If he approve, 
he shall sign it, and thereupon it shall become a law; but if he 
do not approve, he shall return it, with his objections, to the 
house in which it shall have originated, which house shall enter 
the objections at large upon its journal, and proceed to reconsider 
the bill. If, then, two-thirds of the members elected agree to 
pass the same, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to 
the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and 
if approved by two-thirds of the members elected to that house, 
it shall become a law, notwithstanding the objections of the 
governor. But in all such cases the vote of each house shall be 
determined by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journal. Any 
bill which shall not be returned by the governor within ten days 
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, 



404 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

shall become a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless 
the general assembly shall, by their adjournment, prevent its 
return, in which case it shall be filed, with his objections, in the 
office of the secretary of state, within ten days after such ad- 
journment, or become a law. 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 

§ 18. The lieutenant-governor shall be president of the sen- 
ate, and shall vote only when the senate is equally divided. The 
senate shall choose a president, pro tempore, to preside in case 
of the absence or impeachment of the lieutenant-governor, or 
when he shall hold the office of governor. 



OTHER STATE OFFICERS. 

§ 20. An account shall be kept by the officers of the execu- 
tive department, and of all the public institutions of the state, 
of all moneys received or disbursed by them, severally, from all 
sources, and for every service performed, and a semi-annual re- 
port thereof be made to the governor, under oath; and any officer 
who makes a false report shall be guilty of perjury, and pun- 
ished accordingly. 

§ 21. The officers of the executive department, and of all the 
public institutions of the state, shall, at least ten days preceding 
each regular session of the general assembly, severally report to 
the governor, who shall transmit such reports to the general as- 
sembly, together with the reports of the judges of the supreme 
court of the defects in the constitution and laws; and the gov- 
ernor may at any time require information in writing, under 
oath, from the officers of the executive department, and all officers 
and managers of state institutions, upon any subject relating to 
the condition, management and expenses of their respective 
offices. 

FEES AND SALARIES. 

§ 23. The officers named in this article shall receive for their 
services a salary to be established by law, which shall not be in- 
creased or diminished during their official terms, and they shall 
not, after the expiration of the terms of those in office at the 
adoption of this constitution, receive to their own use any fees, 
costs, perquisites of office, or other compensation. And all fees 



ILLINOIS. 405 

that may hereafter be payable by law for any service performed 
by any officer provided for in this article of the constitution, 
shall be paid in advance into the state treasury. 



ARTICLE VI. 

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 

§ 1. The judicial powers, except as in this article is otherwise 
provided, shall be vested in one supreme court, circuit courts, 
county courts, justices of the peace, police magistrates, and in 
such courts as may be created by law in and for cities and in- 
corporated towns. 

SUPREME COURT. 

§ 2. The supreme court shall consist of seven judges and 
shall have original jurisdiction in cases relating to the revenue, 
in mandamus and habeas corpus, and appellate jurisdiction in 
all other cases. One of said judges shall be chief justice; four 
shall constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of four shall be 
necessary to every decision. 

§ 3. No person shall be eligible to the office of judge of the 
supreme court unless he shall be at least thirty years of age, and 
a citizen of the United States, nor unless he shall have resided 
in this state five years next preceding his election, and be a res- 
ident of the district in which he shall be elected. 

§ 6. At the time of voting on the adoption of this constitu- 
tion, one judge of the supreme court shall be elected by the 
electors thereof, in each of said districts numbered two, three, 
six and seven, who shall hold his office for the term of nine years, 
from the first Monday in June, in the year of our Lord 1870. 
The term of office of judges of the supreme court, elected after 
the adoption of this constitution, shall be nine years; and on the 
first Monday of June of the year in which the term of any of the 
judges in office at the adoption of this constitution, or of the 
judges then elected, shall expire, and every nine years thereafter, 
there shall be an election for the successor or successors of such 
judges, in the respective districts wherein the term of such judges 
shall expire. The chief justice shall continue to act as such until 
the expiration of the term for which he was elected, after which 
the judges shall choose one of their number chief justice. 

§ 7. From and after the adoption of this constitution, the 



406 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

judges of the supreme court shall each receive a salary of $4,000 
per annum, payable quarterly, until otherwise provided by law. 
And after said salaries shall be fixed by law, the salaries of the 
judges in office shall not be increased or diminished during the 
terms for which said judges shall have been elected. 



CIRCUIT COURTS. 

§ 12. The circuit courts shall have original jurisdiction of all 
causes in law and equity, and such appellate jurisdiction as is or 
may be provided by law, and shall hold two or more terms each 
year in every county. The terms of office of judges of circuit 
courts shall be six years. 

§ 14. The general assembly shall provide for the times of 
holding court in each county, which shall not be changed, except 
by the general assembly next preceding the general election for 
judges of said courts; but additional terms may be provided for in 
any county. The election for judges of the circuit courts shall 
be held on the first Monday in June, in the year of our Lord 
1873, and every six years thereafter. 

§ 16. From and after the adoption of this constitution, judges 
of the circuit courts shall receive a salary of $3,000 per annum, 
payable quarterly, until otherwise provided by law. And after 
their salaries shall be fixed by law, they shall not be increased or 
diminished during the terms for which said judges shall be, respec- 
tively, elected; and from and after the adoption of this constitu- 
tion, no judge of the supreme or circuit court shall receive any 
other compensation, perquisite or benefit, in any form whatsoever, 
nor perform any other than judicial duties to which may belong 
any emoluments. 

§ 17. No person shall be eligible to the office of judge of the 
circuit or any inferior court, or to membership in the ' board of 
county commissioners,' unless he shall be at least twenty-five years 
of age, and a citizen of the United States, nor unless he shall have 
resided in this state five years next preceding his election, and be 
a resident of the circuit, county, city, cities or incorporated town 
in which he shall be elected. 



COUNTY COURTS. 

§ 18. There shall be elected in and for each county, one county 
judge and one clerk of the county court, whose terms of office shall 
be four years. But the general assembly may create districts of 



ILLINOIS. 407 

two or more contiguous counties, in each of which shall be elected 
one judge, who shall take the place of, and exercise the powers 
and jurisdiction of county judges in such districts. County courts 
shall be courts of record, and shall have original jurisdiction in 
all matters of probate, settlement of estates of deceased persons, 
appointment of guardians and conservators, and settlements of 
their accounts, in all matters relating to apprentices, and in pro- 
ceedings for the collection of taxes and assessments, and such 
other jurisdiction as may be provided for by general law. 

§ 19. Appeals and writs of error shall be allowed from final 
determinations of county courts, as may be provided by law. 

PROBATE COURTS. 

§ 20. The general assembly may provide for the establishment 
of a probate court in each county having a population of over 
50,000, and for the election of a judge thereof, whose term of 
office shall be the same as that of the county judge, and who shall 
be elected at the same time and in the same manner. Said courts, 
when established, shall have original jurisdiction of all probate 
matters, the settlement of estates of deceased persons, the ap- 
pointment of guardians and conservators, and settlement of their 
accounts; in all matters relating to apprentices, and in cases of 
the sales of real estate of deceased persons for the payment of 
debts. 

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND CONSTABLES. 

§ 21. Justices of the peace, police magistrates, and constables 
shall be elected in and for such districts as are, or may be, pro- 
vided by law T , and the jurisdiction of such justices of the peace 
and police magistrates shall be uniform. 

STATE'S • ATTORNEYS. 

§ 22. At the election for members of the general assembly in 
the year of our Lord 1872, and every four years thereafter, there 
shall be elected a state's attorney in and for each county, in lieu 
of the state's attorneys now provided by law, whose term of office 
shall be four years. 

GENERAL PROVISIONS. 

§ 29. All judicial officers shall be commissioned by the gov- 
ernor. All laws relating to courts shall be general, and of uni- 



408 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

form operation; and the organisation, jurisdiction, powers, pro- 
ceedings and practice of all courts, of the same class or grade, so 
far as regulated by law, and the force and effect of the process, 
judgments and decrees of such courts, severally, shall be uni- 
form. 

§ 30. The general assembly may, for cause entered on the 
journals, upon due notice and opportunity of defence, remove 
from office any judge, upon concurrence of three-fourths of all 
the members elected, of each house. All other officers in this 
article mentioned shall be removed from office on prosecution and 
final conviction for misdemeanour in office. 



ARTICLE VII. 

SUFFEAGE. 

§ 1. Every person having resided in this state one year, in 
the county ninety days, and in the election district thirty days 
next preceding any election therein, who was an elector in this 
state on the first day of April, in the year of our Lord 1848, or 
obtained a certificate of naturalisation before any court of record 
in this state prior to the first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord 1870, or who shall be a male citizen of the United States, 
above the age of twenty-one years, shall be entitled to vote at 
such election. 

§ 2. All votes shall be by ballot. 

§ 3. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or 
breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their at- 
tendance at elections, and in going to and returning from the 
same. And no elector shall be obliged to do military duty on 
the days of election, except in time of war or public danger. 

§ 4. No elector shall be deemed to have lost his residence in 
this state by reason of his absence on business of the United 
States, or of this state, or in the' military or naval service of the 
United States. 

§ 5. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the 
United States shall be deemed a resident of this state in conse- 
quence of being stationed therein. 

§ 6. No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in 
this state, civil or militar} T , who is not a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not have resided in this state one year 
next preceding the election or appointment. 

§ 7. The general assembly shall pass laws excluding from the 
right of suffrage persons convicted of infamous crimes. 



ILLINOIS. 409 

ARTICLE VIII. 

EDUCATION. 

§ 1. The general assembly shall provide a thorough and ef- 
ficient system of free schools, whereby all children of this state 
may receive a good common school education. 

§ 2. All lands, moneys, or other property, donated, granted 
or received for school, college, seminary or university purposes, 
and the proceeds thereof, shall be faithfully applied to the ob- 
jects for which such gifts or grants were made. 

§ 3. Neither the general assembly nor any county, city, town, 
township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever 
make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, 
anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help 
support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, uni- 
versity, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by 
any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any 
grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property 
ever be made by the state or any such public corporation, to any 
church, or for any sectarian purpose. 

§ 4. No teacher, state, county, township or district school 
officer shall be interested in the sale, proceeds or profits of any 
book, apparatus or furniture used or to be used in any school in 
this state, with which such officer or teacher may be connected, 
under such penalties as may be provided by the general assem- 
bly. 

§ 5. There may be a county superintendent of schools in 
each county, whose qualifications, powers, duties, compensation, 
and time and manner of election, and term of office, shall be pre- 
scribed by law. 



ARTICLE IX. 

REVENUE. 

§ 1. The general assembly shall provide such revenue as may 
be needful by levying a tax, by valuation, so that every person 
and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, 
Jier or its property — such value to be ascertained by some person 
or persons, to be elected or appointed in such manner as the 
general assembly shall direct, and not otherwise; but the general 
assembly shall have power to tax pedlers, auctioneers, brokers, 
hawkers, merchants, commission merchants, showmen, jugglers, 



410 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

innkeepers, grocery keepers, liquor dealers, toll bridges, ferries, 
insurance, telegraph and express interests or business, venders 
of patents, and persons or corporations owning or using fran- 
chises and privileges, in such manner as it shall from time to 
time direct by general law, uniform as to the class upon which it 
operates. 

§ 2. The specification of the objects and subjects of taxation 
shall not deprive the general assembly of the power to require 
other subjects or objects to be taxed in such manner as may be 
consistent with the principles of taxation fixed in this constitu- 
tion. 

§ 3. The property of the state, counties, and other municipal 
corporations, both real and personal, and such other property as 
may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, 
for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, may be 
exempted from taxation; but such exemption shall be only by 
general law. In the assessment of real estate incumbered by 
public easement, any depreciation occasioned by such easement 
may be deducted in the valuation of such property. 

§ 6. The general assembly shall have no power to release or 
discharge any county, city, township, town or district whatever, 
or the inhabitants thereof, or the property therein, from their or 
its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for state purposes, 
nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorised in any form 
whatsoever. 

§ 7. All taxes levied for state purposes shall be paid into the 
state treasury. 

§ 8. Count}' authorities shall never assess taxes, the aggre- 
gate of which shall exceed 75 cents per $100 valuation, except 
for the payment of indebtedness existing at the adoption of this 
constitution, unless authorised by a vote of the people of the 
county. 

§ 9. The general assembly may vest the corporate authorities 
of cities, towns and villages, with power to make local improve- 
ments by special assessment, or by special taxation of contiguous 
property, or otherwise. For all other corporate purposes, all 
municipal corporations may be vested with authority to assess 
and collect taxes; but such taxes shall be uniform in respect to 
persons and property, within the jurisdiction of the body impos- 
ing the same. 

§ 10. The general assembly shall not impose taxes upon 
municipal corporations, or the inhabitants or property thereof, for 
corporate purposes, but shall require that all the taxable property 
within the limits of municipal corporations shall be taxed for the 
payment of debts contracted under authority of law, such taxes 



ILLINOIS. .411 

to be uniform in respect to persons and property, within the 
jurisdiction of the body imposing the same. Private property 
shall not be liable to be taken or sold for the payment of the 
corporate debts of a municipal corporation. 

§ 12. No county, city, township, school district, or other 
municipal corporation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any 
manner, or for any purpose, to an amount, including existing in- 
debtedness, in the aggregate exceeding five per centum on the 
value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last 
assessment for state and county taxes, previous to the incurring 
of such indebtedness. Any county, city, school district, or other 
municipal corporation, incurring any indebtedness as aforesaid, 
shall before, or at the time of doing so, provide for the collection 
of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such debt 
as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal thereof 
within twenty years from the time of contracting the same. This 
section shall not be construed to prevent any county, city, town- 
ship, school district, or other municipal corporation, from issuing 
their bonds in compliance with any vote of the people which may 
have been had prior to the adoption of this constitution in pur- 
suance of any law providing therefor. 

ARTICLE X. 

COUNTIES. 

§ 1. No new county shall be formed or established by the 
general assembly, which will reduce the county or counties, or 
either of them, from which it shall be taken, to less contents than 
400 square miles; nor shall any county be formed of less contents: 
nor shall any line thereof pass within less than ten miles of any 
county seat of the county or counties proposed to be divided. 

§ 2. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken 
therefrom, without submitting the question to a vote of the people 
of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the 
county, voting on the question, shall vote for the same. 

§ 3. There shall be no territory stricken from any county, 
unless a majority of the voters living in such territory shall peti- 
tion for such division; and no territory shall be added to any 
county without the consent of the majority of the voters of the 
county to which it is proposed to be added. But the portion so 
stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or 
in part into a new county, shall be holden for, and obliged to 
pay its proportion of the indebtedness of the county from which 
it has been taken. 



412 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 



COUNTY GOVERNMENT. 

§ 5. The general assembly shall provide, by general law, for 
township organisation, under which any county may organise 
whenever a majority of the legal voters of such county, voting 
at any general election, shall so determine; and whenever any 
county shall adopt township organisation, so much of this con- 
stitution as provides for the management of the fiscal concerns 
of the said county by the board of county commissioners, may 
be dispensed with, and the affairs of said county may be trans- 
acted in such manner as the general assembly may provide. 
And in any county that shall have adopted a township organisa- 
tion, the question of continuing the same may be submitted to 
a vote of the electors of said county, at a general election, in the 
manner that now is or may be provided by law; and if a majority 
of all the votes cast upon that question shall be against town- 
ship organisation, then such organisation shall cease in said 
county; and all laws in force in relation to counties not having 
township organisation, shall immediately take effect and be in 
force in such county. No two townships shall have the same 
name, and the day of holding the annual township meeting 
shall be uniform throughout the state. 

§ 6. At the first election of county judges under this consti- 
tution, there shall be elected in each of the counties in this state, 
not under township organisation, three officers, who shall be styled 
" The board of county commissioners," who shall hold sessions 
for the transaction of county business as shall be provided by 
law. One of said commissioners shall hold his office for one year, 
one for two years, and one for three years, to be determined by 
lot; and every year thereafter one such officer shall be elected 
in each of the said counties for the term of three years. 



COUNTY OFFICERS AND THEIR COMPENSATION. 

§ 8. In each county there shall be elected the following 
county officers: County judge, sheriff, county clerk, clerk of the 
circuit court, (who may be ex-officio recorder of deeds, except in 
counties having 60,000 and more inhabitants, in which counties 
a recorder of deeds shall be elected at the general election in the 
year of our Lord 1872,) treasurer, surveyor and coroner, each 
of whom shall enter upon the duties of his office, respectively, 
on the first Monday of December after their election; and they 
shall hold their respective offices for the term of four years, ex- 
cept the treasurer, sheriff and coroner, who shall hold their 



ILLINOIS. 413 

offices for two years, and until their successors shall be elected 
and qualified. 

§ 9. The clerks of all the courts of record, the treasurer, 
sheriff, coroner and recorder of deeds of Cook county, shall re- 
ceive as their only compensation for their services, salaries to be 
fixed by law, which shall in no case be as much as the lawful com- 
pensation of a judge of the circuit court of said county, and shall 
be paid, respectively, only out of the fees of the office actually 
collected. All fees, perquisites and emoluments (above the 
amount of said salaries) shall be paid into the county treasury. 
The number of the deputies and assistants of such officers shall 
be determined by rule of the circuit court, to be entered of 
record, and their compensation shall be determined by the county 
board. 

§ 10. The county board, except as provided in section 9 of 
this article, shall fix the compensation of all county officers, with 
the amount of their necessary clerk- hire, stationery, fuel and 
other expenses, and in all cases where fees are provided for, said 
compensation shall be paid only out of, and shall in no instance 
exceed, the fees annually collected; they shall not allow either 
of them more per annum than 81,500, in counties not exceeding 
20,000 inhabitants; 82,000 in counties containing 20,000 and not 
exceeding 30,000 inhabitants; 82,500 in counties containing 
30,000 and not exceeding 50,000 inhabitants; 83,000 in counties 
containing 50,000 and not exceeding 70,000 inhabitants; 83,500 
in counties containing 70,000 and not exceeding 100,000 inhab- 
itants; and 84,000 in counties containing over 100,000 and not 
exceeding 250,000 inhabitants; and not more than 81,000 addi- 
tional compensation for each additional 100,000 inhabitants: 
Provided, that the compensation of no officer shall be increased 
or diminished during his term of office. All fees or allowances 
by them received, in excess of their said compensation, shall be 
paid into the county treasury. 

§ 11. The fees of township officers, and of each class of 
county officers, shall be uniform in the class of counties to which 
they respectively belong. The compensation herein provided 
for shall apply only to officers hereafter elected, but all fees 
established by special laws shall cease at the adoption of this 
constitution, and such officers shall receive only such fees as are 
provided by general law. 

§ 12. All laws fixing the fees of state, county and township 
officers, shall terminate with the terms, respectively, of those 
who may be in office at the meeting of the first general assembly 
after the adoption of this constitution; and the general assembly 
shall, by general law, uniform in its operation, provide for aud 



414 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

regulate the fees of said officers and their successors, so as to 
reduce the same to a reasonable compensation for services 
actually rendered. But the general assembly may, by general 
law, classify the counties by population into not more than 
three classes, and regulate the fees according to class. This 
article shall not be construed as depriving the general assembly 
of the power to reduce the fees of existing officers. 

§ 13. Every person who is elected or appointed to any office 
in this state, who shall be paid in whole or in part by fees, shall 
be required by law to make a semi-annual report, under oath, to 
some officer, to be designated by law, of all his fees and emolu- 
ments. 



ARTICLE XI. 

CORPORATIONS. 

§ 1. No corporation shall be created by special laws, or its 
charter extended, changed or amended, except those for chari- 
table, educational, penal or reformatory purposes, which are to 
be and remain under the patronage and control of the state, but 
the general assembly shall provide, by general laws, for the 
organisation of all corporations hereafter to be created. 

§ 2. All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive 
privileges, under which organisation shall not have taken place, 
or which shall not have been in operation within ten days from 
the time this constitution takes effect, shall thereafter have no 
validity or effect whatever. 

§ 3. The general assembly shall provide, by law, that in all 
elections for directors or managers of incorporated companies, 
every stockholder shall have the right to vote, in person or by 
proxy, for the number of shares of stock owned by him, for as 
many persons as there are directors or managers to be elected, 
or to cumulate said shares, and give one candidate as many 
votes as the number of directors multiplied by the number of 
his shares of stock shall equal,- or to distribute them on the same 
principle among as many candidates as he shall think fit; and 
such directors or managers shall not be elected in any other 
manner. 

§ 4. No law shall be passed by the general assembly granting 
the right to construct and operate a street railroad within any 
city, town or incorporated village, without requiring the consent 
of the local authorities having the control of the street or high- 
way proposed to be occupied by such street railroad. 



ILLINOIS. 415 



BANKS. 

§ 5. No state bank shall hereafter be created, nor shall the 
state own or be liable for any stock in any corporation or joint 
stock company or association for banking purposes, now created, 
or to be hereafter created. No act of the general assembly 
authorising or creating corporations or associations with bank- 
ing powers, whether of issue, deposit or discount, nor amend- 
ments thereto, shall go into effect or in any manner be in force 
unless the same shall be submitted to a vote of the people at 
the general election next succeeding the passage of the same, 
and be approved by a majority of all the votes cast at such 
election for or against such law. 

§ 6. Every stockholder in a banking corporation or institu- 
tion shall be individually responsible and liable to its creditors, 
over and above the amount of stock by him or her held, to an 
amount equal to his or her respective shares so held, for all its 
liabilities accruing while he or she remains such stockholder. 

§ 7. The suspension of specie payments by banking institu- 
tions, on their circulation, created by the laws of this state, 
shall never be permitted or sanctioned. Every banking associa-* 
tion now, or which may hereafter be organised under the laws 
of this state, shall make and publish a full and accurate quar- 
terly statement of its affairs, (which shall be certified to, under 
oath, by one or more of its officers,) as may be provided by law. 

§ 8. If a general banking law shall be enacted, it shall pro- 
vide for the registry and countersigning, by an officer of state, 
of all bills or paper credit, designed to circulate as money, and 
require security, to the full amount/ thereof, to be deposited 
with the state treasurer, in United States or Illinois State stocks, 
to be rated at 10 per cent, below their par value; and in case of 
a depreciation of said stocks to the amount of 10 per cent, 
below par, the bank or banks owning said stocks shall be required 
to make up said deficiency by depositing additional stocks. And 
said law shall also provide for the recording of the names of all 
stockholders in such corporations, the amount of stock held by 
each, the time of any transfer thereof, and to whom such trans- 
fer is made. 

RAILROADS. 

§ 9. Every railroad corporation organised or doing business 
in this state, under the laws or authority thereof, shall have and 
maintain a public office or place in this state for the transaction 
of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made, and in 



41 G STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

which shall be kept, for public inspection, books, in which shall 
be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, and by whom; 
the names of the owners of its stock, and the amounts owned by 
them respectively; the amount of stock paid in, and by whom; 
the transfer of said stock; the amount of its assets and liabilities, 
and the names and place of residence of its officers. The direc- 
tors of every railroad corporation shall, annually, make a report, 
under oath, to the auditor of public accounts, or some officer to 
be designated by law, of all their acts and doings, which report 
shall include such matters relating to railroads as may be pre- 
scribed by law. And the general assembly shall pass laws en- 
forcing by suitable penalties the provisions of this section. 

§ 10. The rolling stock, and all other movable property be- 
longing to any railroad company or corporation in this state, 
shall be considered personal property, and shall be liable to ex- 
ecution and sale in the same manner as the personal property of 
individuals, and the general assembly shall pass no law exempt- 
ing any such property from execution and sale. 

§ 11. No railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, pro- 
perty or franchises with any other railroad corporation owning a 
•parallel or competing line; and in no case shall any consolidation 
take place, except upon public notice given, of at least sixty 
days, to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by 
law. A majority of the directors of any railroad corporation, 
now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated by the laws of 
this state, shall be citizens and residents of this state. 

§ 12. Railways heretofore constructed, or that may hereafter 
be constructed in this state, are hereby declared public highways, 
and shall be free to all persons for the transportation of their 
persons and property thereon, under such regulations as may be 
prescribed by law. And the general assembly shall, from time 
to time, pass laws establishing reasonable maximum rates of 
charges for the transportation of passengers and freight on the 
different railroads in this state. 

§ 13. No railroad corporation shall issue any stock or bonds, 
except for money, labour or property actually received, and ap- 
plied to the purposes for which such corporation was created; 
and all stock dividends, and other fictitious increase of the cap- 
ital stock or indebtedness of any such corporation, shall be void. 
The capital stock of no railroad corporation shall be increased for 
any purpose, except upon giving sixty days' public notice, in 
such manner as may be provided by law. 

§ 14. The exercise of the power, and the right of eminent 
domain, shall never be so construed or abridged as to prevent the 
taking, by the general assembly, of the property and franchises 



ILLINOIS. 417 

of incorporated companies already organised, and subjecting them 
to the public necessity the same as of individuals. The right of 
trial by jury shall be held inviolate in all trials of claims for com- 
pensation, when, in the exercise of the said right of eminent do- 
main, any incorporated company shall be interested either for or 
against the exercise of said right. 

§ 15. The general assembly shall pass laws to correct abuses 
and prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in the rates of 
freight and passenger tariffs on the different railroads in this 
state, and enforce such laws by adequate penalties, to the extent, 
if necessary for that purpose, of forfeiture of their property and 
franchises. 



ARTICLE XII. 

MILITIA. 

§ 1. The militia of the state of Illinois shall consist of all able- 
bodied male persons, resident in the state, between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five, except such persons as now are, or here- 
after may be, exempted by the laws of the United States, or of 
this state. 

§ 2. The general assembly, in providing for the organisation, 
equipment and discipline of the militia, shall conform as nearly 
as practicable to the regulations for the government of the ar- 
mies of the United States. 

§ 3. All militia officers shall be commissioned by the governor, 
and may hold their commissions for such time as the general as- 
sembly may provide. 

§ 4. The militia shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or 
breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their at- 
tendance at musters and elections, and in going to and returning 
from the same. 

§ 5. The military records, banners and relics of the state, 
shall be preserved as an enduring memorial of the patriotism and 
valour of Illinois, and it shall be the duty of the general assem- 
bly to provide, by law, for the safe keeping of the same. 

§ G. No person having conscientious scruples against bearing 
arms shall be compelled to do militia duty in time of peace: Pro- 
vided, such person shall pay an equivalent for such exemption. 

27 



418 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

ARTICLE XIII. 

WAREHOUSES. 

§ 1. All elevators or storehouses where grain or other pro- 
perty is stored for a compensation, whether* the property stored 
be kept separate or not, are declared to be public warehouses. 

§ 2. The owner, lessee or manager of each and every public 
warehouse situated in any town or city of not less than 100,000 
inhabitants, shall make weekly statements under oath, before some 
officer to be designated by law, and keep the same posted in some 
conspicuous place in the office of such warehouse, and shall also 
file a copy for public examination in such place as shall be desig- 
nated by law, which statement shall correctly set forth the 
amount and grade of each and every kind of grain in such ware- 
house, together with such other property as may be stored 
therein, and what warehouse receipts have been issued, and are, 
at the time of making such statement, outstanding therefor; and 
shall, on the copy posted in the warehouse, note daily such 
changes as may be made in the quantity and grade of grain in 
such warehouse; and the different grades of grain shipped in 
separate lots shall not be mixed with inferior or superior grades 
without the consent of the owner or consignee thereof. 

§ 3. The owners of property stored in any warehouse, or 
holder of a receipt for the same, shall always be at liberty to ex- 
amine such property stored, and all the books and records of the 
warehouse in regard to such property. 

§ 4. All railroad companies and other common carriers on 
railroads shall weigh or measure grain at points where it is 
shipped, and receipt for the full amount, and shall be responsible 
for the delivery of such amount to the owner or consignee thereof 
at the place of destination. 

§ 5. All railroad companies receiving and transporting grain 
in bulk or otherwise, shall deliver the same to any consignee 
thereof, or any elevator or public warehouse to which it may be 
consigned, provided such consignee or the elevator or public 
warehouse can be reached by any track owned, leased or used, 
or which can be used, by such railroad companies; and all rail- 
road companies shall permit connections to be made with their 
track, so that any such consignee, and any public warehouse, 
coal bank or coal yard, may be reached by the cars on said rail- 
road. 

§ 6. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to pass all 
necessary laws to prevent the issue of false and fraudulent ware- 



ILLINOIS. 419 

house receipts, and to give full effect to this article of the consti- 
tution, which shall be liberally construed so as to protect pro- 
ducers and shippers. And the enumeration of the remedies 
herein named shall not be construed to deny to the general as- 
sembly the power to prescribe by law such other and further 
remedies as may be found expedient, or to deprive any person of 
existing common law remedies. 

§ 7. The general assembly shall pass laws for the inspection 
of grain, for the protection of producers, shippers and receivers 
of grain and produce. 



ARTICLE XIV. 

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

§ 1. Whenever two-thirds of the members of each house of 
the general assembly shall, by a vote entered upon the journals 
thereof, concur that a convention is necessary to revise, alter or 
amend the constitution, the question shall be submitted to the 
electors at the next general election. If a majority voting at the 
election vote for a convention, the general assembly shall, at the 
next session, provide for a convention, to consist of double the 
number of members of the senate, to be elected in the same 
manner, at the same places, and in the same districts. The gen- 
eral assembly shall, in the act calling the convention, designate 
the day, hour and place of its meeting, fix the pay of its mem- 
bers and officers, and provide for the payment of the same, to- 
gether with expenses necessarily incurred by the convention in 
the performance of its duties. Before proceeding, the members 
shall take an oath to support the constitution of the United 
States, and of the state of Illinois, and to faithfully discharge 
their duties as members of the convention. The qualification of 
members shall be the same as that of members of the senate, and 
vacancies occurring shall be filled in the manner provided for fill- 
ing vacancies in the general assembly. Said convention shall 
meet within three months after such election, and prepare such 
revision, alteration or amendments of the constitution as shall I" e 
deemed necessary, which shall be submitted to the electors for 
their ratification or rejection, at an election appointed by the 
convention for that purpose, not less than two nor more than six 
months after the adjournment thereof; and unless so submitted 
and approved by a majority of the electors voting at the election, 
no such revision, alterations and amendments shall take effect. 

§ 2. Amendments to this constitution may be proposed in 



420 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. 

either house of the general assembly, and if the same shall be 
voted for by two-thirds of all the members elected to each of the 
two houses, such proposed amendments, together with the yeas 
and nays of each house thereon, shall be entered in full on their 
respective journals; and said amendments shall be submitted to 
the electors of this state for adoption or rejection, at the next 
election of members of the general assembly, in such mannw as 
may be prescribed by law. The proposed amendments shall be 
published in full at least three months preceding the election, 
and if a majority of the electors voting at said election shall vote 
for the proposed amendments, they shall become a part of this 
constitution. But the general assembly shall have no power to 
propose amendments to more than one article of this constitu- 
tion at the same session, nor to the same article oftener than 
once in four years. 



SEPARATE SECTIONS. 

MUNICIPAL SUBSCRIPTIONS TO EAILEOADS OE PEIVATE 
COEPOEATIONS. 

No county, city, town, township or other municipality, shall 
ever become subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or 
private corporation, or make donation to or loan its credit in aid 
of such corporation: Provided, however, that the adoption of 
this article shall not be construed as affecting the right of any 
such municipality to make such subscriptions where the same 
have been authorized, under existing laws, by a vote of the peo- 
ple of such municipalities prior to such adoption. 



THE END. 



L*5Ao"'S 




